A Study Of The Translator's Ethics In A Postmodern Context

After the cultural turn in translation studies, there have appeared some postmodern translation theories, such as the theories of the cultural school, postcolonialism, feminism and deconstructionism, which broaden the research scope and field of translation studies. These theories, however, tend to overcorrect, and separate themselves from the ontological study of translation. Specifically, the cultural school believes that translation is rewriting and manipulation, exaggerating the translators' subjectivity; the feminists regard traditional translation theory as gender discrimination as well as a product of patriarchal politics, and thus advocate sex emancipation; the postcolonialists consider translation as an arena for "conquering" vs."resisting", and hold that the core of translation studies is the national identity and status; the deconstructionists denies the determinancy of meaning, thereby leading translation studies to chaos and nihility. These paradoxes of translation ethics, the ethic nature of translating and the cultural ethic turn in philosophy combine to cause an ethic turn in translation studies. The issue of ethics in translation thus arouses the attention of translation scholars.In traditional translation theories, translators were looked upon as "servants","dancers in chains" and "invisible men".They should be absolutely faithful to the original texts and the original writers, without any creativity. In the postmodern context, however, their subjectivity is increasingly highlighted, and "creative treason" becomes their choice, which, if used properly, will bring good effect in translation.But "creative treason" cannot be abused; it is subject to moral and ethic regulations.What kind of ethic regulations shall translators have? How are these regulations to be guaranteed in translation? This dissertation aims to answer these questions. The author believes that the translators should have the four ethic regulations of sincerity, responsibility, normalization and justice, which require the translators to deal with correctly the relations between the two cultures and between the translators and other translation subjects, and to negociate properly different interests. In an increasingly commercial society, however, if there are no institutional ethics or a translator's minimal ethics to guarantee these ethic regulations, which have no mandatory force of constraint, the translators's activity cannot be really regulated.Unlike the above-mentioned ethic regulations, translation institutional ethics embody the ethic notions and moral principles of the translation activity in the form of laws and institutions. In this way, the ethic notions and moral principles are institutionalized, legalized and normalized; meanwhile, the laws and regulations of translation reflect the ethic pursuit and value judgement of the translation activity. Since the translation institutional ethics have mandatory force of constraint, they can function as the guarantee for the ethic regulations of translators.Therefore, translation institutional ethics urgently need to be established to control accreditation for the profession and translation market access, to enhance honesty and good credit as a general practice, and to promote translation legislation. However, the heteronomy of institutional ethics alone cannot ensure the practice of the translators'four ethic principles and regulations. Only when the moral regulations and ethic principles of translation institutions are internalized and become the belief of the translator, and externalized and become his acts, so that they can form the translator's autonomy and minimal ethic consciousness, can the moral chaos of translation be eradicated. Hence, translators should strengthen their minimal ethic notions, improve their ethic attainment and respect the Other (including the original text and original writer, the reader and the foreign culture) to shift from heteronomy to autonomy in translation ethics in the interest of healthy, positive and orderly development of translation.