On Retranslation From The Perspective Of Translation Ethica

Ethics is a philosophy concerned with what is morally good and bad and all kinds of social relationships. In translation activity, there are many factors for translators to harmonize. Translation ethics mainly focuses on their relationships and the creation of a better translation. It is generally believed that the study of translation ethics began in the 1980s, marked by the proposal of the concept of translation ethics by French translation theorist Antoine Berman. Afterwards, in the definition of translation ethics, editor of the special publication of The Translator mainly borrows the four current models of translation ethics from Andrew Chesterman's article "Proposal for a Hieronymic Oath", that is:ethics of representation—to represent the source text, or the source author's intention; ethics of service-to fulfill the aim of the translation as set by the client and accepted or negotiated by the translator; ethics of communication-to recognize the "Other" as a "subject", with whom one can indeed communicate; norm-based ethics-to behave as one is expected in accordance with the target culture. In addition, Chesterman adds another ethical model:ethics of commitment-to support the pursuit of excellence and criterion, the desire to be a good translator. His concept crystallizes the existing ideas about translation ethics, thus providing us with a multi-dimensional perspective for studying diverse translation thoughts and practice.Based on this new and comprehensive theory, this thesis discusses and analyzes the different Chinese retranslations of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. With the hope of expanding our view on translation studies, and expounding the necessity and positive effect of introducing ethics into translation studies, it would be of some value to the development of Chinese translation study.In addition to introduction and conclusion, the thesis mainly consists of four chapters:Chapter one gives a brief survey on translation ethics, and exposes the internal connections between translation and ethics. It deals with the relationships between translation ethics and retranslation. Chapter two reviews the current studies about translation ethics both abroad and at home, with special focus on Chesterman's elaboration of five models of translation ethics. Chapter three is a case study. It makes a brief introduction to the different retranslation versions of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, mainly indicating that the purpose of retranslation is in accordance with ethics of service and communication. By comparing the three different Chinese versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin (translated by Lin Shu, Huang Jizhong and Wang Jiaxiang), the research seeks the impacts of translation ethics on their translation versions and explores the developing trends of translation ethics. Chapter four is based on the case study of Uncel Tom's Cabin, copes with the conflicts between ethics of representation and norm-based ethics, the coordination function performed by ethics of communication and service. About retranslation, the translators follow representation ethics in most cases; when there emerges conflict between representation and norm-based ethics, a choice is made under the guidance and coordination of ethics of communication and service. Generally, the translator would choose norm-based ethics instead of representation ethics. In the last part, the conclusion, the limitations and the future plan for developments are put forward.