Translator’s Subjectivity---A Case Study of Cao Yu’s and Zhu Shenghao’s Translation of Romeo and Juliet
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the
Degree of Bachelor of Arts
Abstract
Translators play an important role in the process of translation and are the medium between different languages and cultures. However, they don’t receive a corresponding status and respect. Under the traditional principle of transparent and smooth translation, the e*istence of translators is often ignored. Inspired by Venuti’s The Translator’s Invisibility – A history of Translation and the study of other Chinese translation theorists, the author of this thesis reaffirms the importance of translator’s subjectivity and tries to give her own understanding of this concept. By comparing Cao Yu’s and Zhu Shenghao’s translation of Romeo and Juliet, the thesis discusses the manifestation of translator’s subjectivity in the relationship with other subjects like the original author, the target reader and other translators. Moreover, it analyzes the limitation of subjectivity from perspectives of philosophy, the original author and reader’s
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1. Introduction
As the cross-cultural communication intensifies worldwide, translation becomes a more and more significant medium between different languages and cultures. However, as the bridge builders, translators don’t receive a corresponding status and respect. A lot of Chinese readers have read Hemingway’s (1899~1961) the Old Man and the Sea (1951). But not everyone can speak out the name of the translator. In fact, not only those ordinary readers ignore the e*istence of translators, but also those in the profession. During my study of Cao Yu’s and Zhu Shenghao’s translation of Shakespeare’s (1564~1616) Romeo and Juliet (1579), I find that in Zhu’s version, his name even doesn’t appear on the cover of the book and his brief introduction locates at the end the book. As for Cao’s version, though his name appears on the cover, nothing else about him is mentioned. On the other hand, when commenting on translations, many critics follow the principle of fluency. If the translation is smooth, it will be regarded as a good version. Moreover, critics often skip the translator and criticize the work as if they are reading the original te*t. As for the translators, most of them feel like that the can do nothing about it but accept the situation.
With the purpose of promoting the status of translators, this thesis will focus on the concept of translator’s subjectivity. In the field of translation, there have already appeared studies on the subject both at home and abroad. Therefore, relevant information and theories are available. Besides some theoretical knowledge, the author will e*plain her viewpoint through a case study of Cao Yu’s and Zhu Shenghaos translation of Romeo and Juliet to make it clearer.
2. Translators subjectivity
2.1 Philosophical origin of the concept of subjectivity
In the philosophical field, the discussion of subject and object is always among the most popular. Many idealistic philosophers hold the idea that anything e*isting relies on human’s thought. They e*cessively emphasize human’s subjectivity, which stems from the philosophical concept of “subject”. A widely-known e*ample is that a forest which is not recognized by people doesn’t e*ist at all. Although more and more philosophers lodge an objection to this idea and turn to believe in objective materialism, subjectivity still shows a strong vitality, among which initiative goes the furthest. Initiative, or subjective initiative, also called conscious initiative, means the ability to recognize and reform the world under a clear purpose, plan and consciousness.
As subjectivity is always related to consciousness and thought, subject is often equal to “human being”. Also subjectivity is recognized to be one of the greatest distinctions from animals. The famous Chinese philosophy professor Wang Yuliang once gave “subjectivity” a definition as follows:
Specifically speaking, subjectivity is the e*ternalization of the essential power in the activity performed on the objects and the characteristics to initiatively change, influence, control the objects and make them serve the subject. (Wang Yuliang, 1995: 35)
It is obvious that subjectivity is closely accompanied by activity, practice, e*perience, and creation with the help of consciousness and the ability of thinking. Thanks to the possibility of subjectivity, the objective world can be recognized and changed by human beings.
2.2 Translators subjectivity in Venuti’s The Translation’s Invisibility – A History of Translation
Venuti was widely known for the concept of “foreignizing translation” put forward in his famous work The Translation’s Invisibility in 1995. He was inspired by the German thinker Schleiermacher’s two methods of translation from which Venuti concluded that “either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him; or h ……(未完,全文共28589字,當前僅顯示5142字,請閱讀下面提示信息。
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