A Comparative Study On Two English Versions' Translation Methods Of Tian Wen And Jiu Ge From The Perspective Of Translation Intersubjectivity

Intersubjecitivity is a philosophical concept to explore the interactions among subjects.The development of intersubjectivity has undergone several innovations.Since it was firstly proposed by Husserl in his phenomenology,the theory of intersubjectivity has been developed by Heidegger's existentialism,Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics,Jauss' s reader-reception aesthetics based on hermeneutics,Bakhtin's dialogism,and Habermas' s theory of communicative action.Cultural turn in translation studies brings about more emphasis and respect to translator's freedom and rights,witnesses the paradigm shift from translation as text to translation as culture,ideology,power and social context as its focus.Intersubjectivity theory has provided a new research methodology for translation studies.Translator in traditional translation theory used to be regarded as the author's servant,the slave and the mouth piece.The translator's creativity and initiative had been neglected.When translating a text,the translator unconsciously pours his own emotion into the translation text.The translation subjects include the author,the text,the translator,the readers,the patronage and so on.In the translation activity,the translator is actually a mediator who communicates with all translation subjects to reach a consensus.This thesis chooses Tian Wen and Jiu Ge,the collection of poems written by the famous patriotic poet Qu Yuan of the Warring States Period,as the target of criticism and comparison.In Tian Wen,Qu Yuan asked questions about natural phenomena,the myths and legends up to the historical events,showing Qu's wise metaphysical skepticism.Qu Yuan also adapted the shamanistic folk songs into Jiu Ge.Based on the two English versions of Tian Wen and Jiu Ge translated by Zhuo Zhenying and David Hinton respectively,this paper endeavors to explore the inter-subject relationships performed in their translation process.Zhuo and Hinton have been constrained by various subjects in the course of translation project.Due to the impact of different horizons,readers' preference and the patron's requests,each translator has his unique and creative ways of interpretation on the same text.Moreover,this thesis concludes the translation methods and strategies taken by the two translators while translating Tian Wen and Jiu Ge.Under the communication and cooperation among the parties involved in translation,Zhuo's translation technique is complete translation,and he adopted transliteration,amplification,inversion,and free translation as his translation methods;Hinton adopted selective translation as his translation technique,and he chose translation methods like substitution,rewritingand literal translation.By comparative analysis of the two English versions,the thesis concludes that the translation text is the final result of the game and compromise between translation subjects;and the summary of the translation methods adopted by the two translators might serve as valuable guidance for English translation of Chinese Classics and external communication.