《论语》英译中译者主体性英语语言文学专业毕业论文.docx

the perspective of the translator’s subjectivity seem unfortunately quite rare. Due to the profound thoughts, rich literary value and cultural information as well as the concise language of the original, different translators have different interpretations of the source text and adopt different translation strategies, thus demonstrate great subjectivities. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the English translations of The Analects from the perspective of the translator’s subjectivity. Among so many English versions of The Analects, the two translated by James Legge and Ku Hungming are the representatives. Legge’s version is faithful and accurate. It attempts to reproduce the style of the original both in form and content and it has long been regarded as the “authorized” version; while Ku’s version is smooth, idiomatic and quite popular with many ordinary English readers with its unique feature. Many factors contribute to the phenomenon that different translators have different translations to the same source text, but the most important one is the translator’s subjectivity.
Of the two versions, the translator’s subjectivity is manifested in two aspects: First, on micro level, which includes linguistic level and cultural level. On linguistic level, the two translators are different in dealing with key terms, sentence structures and figures of speech; on cultural level, they display their different tendencies in terms of proper names, material culture, religious culture and customs and habits. Second, on macro level, under specific social culture and historical background, James Legge and Ku Hungming differ from each other in personal experience and background, petence, translation purpose, cultural attitude, individual ideology and reader awareness. These subjective factors of translators exist objectively and exert great influence on their translations.
This thesis attempts to apply the relevant theories of the translator’s subjectivity to parison of