Translation Studies: Humanistic Or Scientistic?

This thesis attempts to probe into translation studies from a new perspective, i.e., to find the relationship between the development of translation studies and the progress of philosophy, and suggests that translation studies be generally divided into the Humanistic, Scientistic and Integrated ones. Such a division offers the theoretical basis for an intensive reading and analysis of George Steiner's After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation, one of the classics of the Humanistic translation theories. Since its first edition in 1975, After Babel has become a powerful monumental work from a hermeneutic perspective. According to Steiner, "To understand is to decipher. To hear significance is to translate." All his statements about translation are shining with the glory of Humanism. At the same time, his criticism on linguistics, especially on Transformational Generative Grammar, also impresses readers greatly.However, until now no complete introduction about such a monumental book has been made in China, except a simplified translation of its 4 chapters by Zhuang Yi-chuan in 1987. Most scholars just mention Steiner as a hermeneutic theorist, and borrow some classic words about his application of hermeneutics to translation from this insightful book, without taking a whole detailed overview. Consequently, this thesis tries to offer an initial study of Steiner's hermeneutic translation theory, and analyzes the contradiction between the Humanistic and Scientistic translation studies reflected in this book.Generally speaking, this thesis consists of the following five parts:Chapter One includes a brief introduction to After Babel, the rationale and the objective of the present thesis. Translation has been a complex subject of human reflection, one ridden with contradiction, from time immemorial. Man's multilingual character results in his having problems in communicating; these are recorded in literature as the mythological account of the building of the Tower of Babel. Thereby the Babel story can be seen as the spark that sets off the discussion of translationtheories and methods. The thesis distinguishes briefly the Humanistic and Scientistic translation studies, and points out that their basic difference lies in that the Humanistic approach is general and empirical while the Scientistic counterpart is concrete and rational. There has long been the contradiction between the Humanistic and Scientistic translation studies, so After Babel comes as a controversial work in translation studies for its hermeneutic approach, which serves as a stimulus to this thesis.Chapter Two offers a generalization for the six chapters in the book After Babel. In the first chapter, Steiner puts forward "understanding as translation", a typical slogan of much hermeneutic color. Then in the next chapter Steiner introduces the discussion on the problem of translatability by analyzing the relationship between language and gnosis. The ultimate result of this discussion is still open, and there can be numerous unknown factors between the two poles of argument, which make the problem about translatability an enduring topic. The third chapter "Word against Object", the most obscure part in the whole book, analyzes the relation between language and the world from a philosophical point of view. In Chapter four "The Claims of Theory", Steiner introduces many translators ranging from ancient times to the present day as well as their theories, and suggests that the history of translation theories be divided into four stages. In the fifth chapter, Steiner puts forward that the hermeneutic motion, the act of interpretation and appropriative transfer of meaning, is fourfold, including trust, aggression, incorporation and restitution or compensation. In the last chapter "Topologies of Culture", Steiner mainly discusses the inter-semiotic translation or rewording proposed by Roman Jakobson.Chapter Three first reviews the contradiction and the later integration between Humanism and Scientism, and introduces the progress of phil...