A Study of Translator’s Gender Identity in Literary Translation from the Perspective of Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory—With the Re-portrayal of Gender Images in Three Chinese Versions of The Painted Veil as An Example
As the re-creator of the texts, translator’s gender identity plays a vital role in translation process. In literary translation, it can exert significant influence on translator’s strategy choices as well, thus leading to varying degrees of alteration in feminist connotations or gender portrayals in translated works. In The Painted Veil, Maugham portrayed distinct female and male characters, depicting a patriarchal society wherein men represent power and women embody repressed female consciousness. However, notable discrepancies emerged between translators of different genders in reproducing the portrayals of the same male and female characters in the novel. Female characters are undervalued in translations by male translators. This suggests that translator’s gender identity can subconsciously influence the re-portrayal of gender images in translation. Translators shall move beyond the constraints of their gender identity, proactively cultivate gender awareness to explore the subtle emotional changes of characters, and employ gender-inclusive language to treat every character in the source text equitably, thereby conveying the ideas of source text more accurately.