Abstract: As the first writer who won the Nobel Prize in literature by a novel of Chinese story, Pearl Buck invested all her life into the work of cultural and ethical equalization, she made great contribution to the cultural communication between China and western countries. However, as the first translator of Shui Hu Zhuan, her translation wasn’t put in a high value in China, leaving behind a regrettable field in Chinese- English translation study.

How to retain original’s independence in the translation activity between two strange cultural contexts is the most important embodiment of translator’s subjectivity in translation. The author uses the postcolonial theory as it focuses on the cultural power behind the novel translation and the realistic influence of translation, which points out the importance of translator’s subjectivity in translation activities. From the view of postcolonial translation and based on the analysis of Pearl Buck’s All Men are Brothers, this thesis discusses the restriction of objective environment to subjectivity and the practical expression in translation under the specific circumstance. It mainly studies on the macro-perspective of personal experience and micro-perspective of language traits. The analysis indicates following conclusion: first of all, we should take the restriction of objective environment and translators’ subjectivity into consider in translation study. Then, translators should choose translation strategy deliberately when they start translation activity in strange language context. 

Key words: postcolonial translation theory; translator’s subjectivity; cultural turn; Pearl Buck; Shui Hu Zhuan

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-4

2. Literature Review-5

2.1 Postcolonialism Theory-5

2.2 Translator’s Subjectivity-7

3. Translator’s Subjectivity in All Men Are Brothers Based on Pearl S. Buck’s Individual Life-8

3.1 Pearl Buck’s Cultural Identity-8

3.2 Pearl S. Buck’s Esthetic Idea-11

3.3 The Effect of Objective Factors-13

4. Translator’s Subjectivity in All Men Are Brothers Based on Pearl S. Buck’s Translation Strategy-15

4.1 Pearl S. Buck’s Literary Standard of Translation: Hybrid Style-15

4.2 Pearl S. Buck’s Linguistic Strategies: Translation of Four-Character Phrases-16

4.3 Pearl S. Buck’s Translation on Literary Language Features-18

5. Conclusion-20

References-