Translation Ethics And The Display Of Translator’s Subjectivity

Since the Cultural Turn of translation studies was put forward in1990s, translationscholars in translation circles have paid more and more attentions to translators. Especiallydriven by the academic context of deconstructionism, the focus of translator’s subjectivity hasgone to another extreme. As for the excessive reveal of translator’s subjectivity, we contendthat the display of translator’s subjectivity should be restricted by translation ethics.Based on Andrew Chesterman’s four ethical principles, together with the introvert andextrovert type of translation ethics proposed by domestic scholars Yang Jie and Zeng Lisha,this thesis examines the three translators’ subjectivities with their Chinese versions ofWashington Irving’s novel The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as the case study. We argue thatunder the restriction at different times and translation norms translators obey the differenttranslation ethic rules, which leads to the display of translators’ subjectivities at differentdegrees. Lin Shu lived in the late Qing Dynasty, when the translation norms were not“fidelity” but “dazhi” and “yiyi”. Therefore in the translating process, translator treats thereaders as his guidance by obeying norm-based translation ethics and adopting the strategy ofdomestication. So his subjectivity has been fully displayed. In the Cold War times, ZhangAiling worked for the United States Information Agency, and the aim of The World TodayPress was to transmit the American culture and ideology. It required that in the translatingprocess, the translator should adopt strategy of domestication and obey the ethics of service.In the specific process, she also obeyed the norm-based ethics and ethics of communication,whose subjectivity was comparatively weak with Lin Shu’s. What’s more, we contend thattranslators can display subjectivities in translating in order to protect the interests of thetranslator or the group s/he represents and strive for her/his basic rights and social status at agiven period. Their activities can be regarded as rational ones from the perspective oftranslation ethics. In the21stcentury, the communication among different nations aims atequality and mutual benefit, which requires the respect for the Other and the alien in thetranslation studies. Therefore, Liu Rongyue’s translation presents his obedience of the ethicsof representation and the ethics of communication, whose display of subjectivity is theweakest one among the three translators. Specifically, in order to save the country and enlighten the nation, Lin Shu modifies the original text in a large scale. Zhang Ailing adoptsthe strategy of hijacking the original text for women’s reasonable rights. And Liu Rongyuewith the mission of intercultural communication adopts procedure of adding footnotes andexplanations in the translating process.It seems safely to draw a conclusion that translation ethics can exert great influence onthe display of translator’s subjectivity so that a translator would resort to certain translationstrategy in order to make his translation historically acceptable at a given historical period.And this is also can be an interpretation for different retranslations for they are the result ofthe fact that the translators at different times have obeyed the different translation ethics.