摘 要

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Research purpose 1

1.3 Structure of the thesis 2

2. Literature review 3

2.1 Overview of the translator’s subjectivity 3

2.2 Previous research at home and abroad 4

3. Two versions of Mr.Almost are compared and analyzed 6

3.1 Translation strategies 6

3.2Translation skills 7

3.3 The target language 9

4. Conclusion 11

References 13

Acknowledgments 14

Abstract

As is universally acknowledged, translation is an extremely complex process involving many factors and the translator plays a crucial role in the space of the translation process. The study on the translator’s subjectivity in China was a little later than that in the west. It is the “cultural turn” that the translator’s subjectivity has been known and understood by hordes of individuals. As the years roll on, the study on this has enjoyed a great popularity in the field of the translation. This dissertation attempts to dig one way into the translator’s subjectivity based on the two English versions: Zhang Peiji’s version-Mr.About-the Same and Zhang Mengjing and Du Yaowen’s version-A Biography of Mr.Almost. There is no denying that strategies, target language and translation skills will be compared between two English versions. This paper attempts to explore how the translators, as the subject of the translation, affects the whole process of the translation, thus resulting in the diversity of the translation.

Keywords: translator’s subjectivity; Mr. Almost; Zhang Peiji; Zhang Mengjing and

Du Yaowen

中文摘要

众所周知，翻译是一个涉及许多因素的复杂的过程，译者在翻译过程中起着至关重要的作用，远非其他因素可比拟。于20世纪90年代初，我国许多学者开始对译者主体性进行研究。特别是近年来，不少学者和研究者对译者主体性进行了大量的研究。因此，对译者主体性的研究逐渐呈上升趋势，成为国内翻译理论研究的热点之一。本论文试图从译者主体性的角度来分析《差不多先生》的两个英译本，即张培基先生的译作与张梦井和杜耀文先生合作的译本。因此,本文从翻译策略和目的语的角度研究对比分析了两篇译本的不同之处，又从翻译技巧的角度分析对比两篇译本的相似之处,并尝试探讨译者如何作为翻译的主体,影响翻译的整个过程,从而导致翻译的多样性。

关键词：译者主体性；《差不多先生传》；张培基；张梦井和杜耀文

Introduction

1.1 Research background

Upon most occasions, the traditional translation tends to discuss some issues at the language level of the target text instead of studying the translator’s subjectivity and strives to minimize the influence of the translator in the text and so-called “faithfully” convey all the information of the source text. For instance, two stages were divided by western countries: linguistic perspective and a cultural perspective. Later than the scholars and researchers in the western countries, Chinese scholars have done many researches on the specific matters which are in connection with the translator’s subjectivity from various theoretical perspectives in different fields. To a large extent, although the time and the background are different between China and western countries, the aim to explore its differences and meaning from the perspective of the translator’s subjectivity is the same. With the years rolling on, the scholars whether in the east or in the west all have been dedicating themselves to the study on the translator’s subjectivity.

1.2 Research purpose

From my point of view, through a comparative analysis of two versions of Zhang Peiji’s version-Mr.About-the Same and Zhang Mengjing’s and Du Yaowen’s version-A Biography of Mr.Almost, the knowledge with respect to the translator’s subjectivity can be gained.

Undoubtedly, Zhang Peiji(1995), Zhang Mengjing and Du Yaowen(1999) are all famous in the translation field. Strictly speaking, there never exists a best translation, and the best is always in the unknown. As the popular saying goes, we will never know which translation belongs to the best one. After all, with science and technology developing, the field of the translation is also going through great changes. As a apprentice in the translation field, I do not intend to criticize the translations of the three teachers, but to appreciate the translation of the teachers from a perspective of the translator's subjectivity, hoping to learn some translation knowledge and skills to the greatest extent through this process. As is universally acknowledged, appreciating the translation of great ones is the most basic step of learning translation.

1.3 Structure of the thesis

Firstly, to get familiar with the various strategies and skills used in the translation, I must read the source text and the target texts carefully. Besides, with the purpose of understanding the main idea that Hu shi wanted to express through this novel to the greatest extent and having a deeper study of the translation theory – the translator’s subjectivity, I have searched a lot of research literature on the biography of Mr. Almost on the Internet. I am firmly entrenched in the belief that it is the most fundamental and crucial step to write a good paper.

Into the bargain, reading relevant previous research is of great necessity. Through searching relevant papers on CNKI and other websites, and consulting the school's online library and electronic library, I have collected a wealth of information about this novel, which is very beneficial to my paper writing.

Last but not least, I put forward the main outline of the paper. Since Mr. Almost is a classic and has exerted a profound influence on later generations, the first chapter of my thesis will be the introduction of the translator’s subjectivity. The second chapter is literature review. In the third chapter, the translation works of Zhang Peiji(1995), Zhang Mengjing and Du Yaowen(1999) are analyzed from the perspective of the translator’s subjectivity and summarized to reach a better conclusion.

Literature review

2.1 Overview of the translator’s subjectivity

Well goes as the prevalent saying:” translation is a quite complex process involving considerable factors and accordingly, the translator plays a crucial role in the space of translation process.

With regard to the translator's subjectivity, Zha Mingjian and Tian yu(2003) harbored the idea that the translator's subjectivity refers to the translator's subjective initiative in the translation matters to finish the translation successfully. Besides, the chief representative of western modern hermeneutics directly inherited and developed phenomenology, especially Heidegger's theory, and established philosophical hermeneutics. From his perspective, translation is interpretation and translator is interpreter, the infinity of comprehension and interpretation, the principle of effect history and other theories provide a philosophical basis for us to examine the translator's subjectivity in literary translation, and present the philosophical essence of the meaning of subjectivity.

Nevertheless, the main body of translation has been covered for a long time in China's cultural pluralism system, resulting in the marginalization of translators' cultural status. With the appearance of the “translator’s subjectivity”, translators have been paid unprecedented attention to, no longer just a bridge connecting the authors and the readers. As a result, the translator’s subjectivity is gradually understood and deepened by increasingly more individuals and groups.

2.2 Previous research at home and abroad

There is no denying that the translator’s subjectivity belongs to a crucial branch of the translation studies whether in the west or in the east. The first one is linguistic perspective. At that period, the famous British translation theorist held the opinion that the translation is one-way code conversion from the source language to the target language. The translators are supposed to use what they have learned before to enable the target text to be consistent with the source text written by the authors. During this period, to the large extent, the translation translators finished should be faithful to not only the content of the original language but also the spirit of the original. As a result, the translators are always given a lot of roles: one French scholar asserts one opinion that the author is the master while the translator is the servant. Besides, Dryden(2008)harbors the sought-after idea that the translators are wearing shackles to dance and so forth. At that time, translators were not given the attention they should deserve. The second one is a cultural perspective. To some extent, it is the appearance of the cultural turn that the translator’s subjectivity has drawn great attention from quite a few translators. At this period, the translators’ rewriting were emphasized.

Into the bargain, the aspects of the research fields which are mostly literature fields. For example, some scholars studied this in the feminist translation works, where they are inclined to make a research on the female works from the translator’s subjectivity.

It is undeniable that there are considerable numbers of theses on the translator’s subjectivity and the research content must be more widely involved in many research fields like literary translation, news translation, poetry translation and so forth. It is clear that further studies will be on the translator’s subjectivity more and more.

3. Two versions of Mr.Almost are compared and analyzed

It is universally accepted that the translation strategies are indispensable in the whole translation process. Literal translation and free translation; semantic translation and communicative translation; domestication and foreignization(2002) are mostly discussed and seen in hordes of works. Admittedly, there exists some papers which study on Mr. Almost from the perspective of these translation strategies. Nevertheless, the translation subjectivity is rarely used.

3.1 Translation strategies

《差不多先生传》

译1：Mr. About-the-Same（张培基，1995:56）