Deconstruction Of Traditional Translation Criteria And Construction Of New Translation Criteria

Concerning translation criteria, there is a contradiction that prevails nowadays: many still advocate "fidelity to the original" as the only criterion of translation, while translators have realized the manipulation of external factors in translation. Practice is the only way to test theory. In fact, "fidelity" to the form of the original is infeasible in practice. And "fidelity" to the content has always been violated. Xuan Zang, an outstanding translator of Buddhist scriptures, and Yan Fu, the most famous translator in late Qing Dynasty, both provided unfaithful translation to some extent. The fallacy of "fidelity" criteria lies in the fact that in traditional translation paradigm and structural linguistic paradigm, it is assumed that there is a static intended meaning waiting for reader/ translator to discover and that translators are isolated from factors in external world to render the discovered meaning. The fallacy is disaffirmed under the impact of the post-modernism philosophy. As Hermeneutics and Reception Aesthetics maintain, meaning in text is not determined in advance; it is contrarily generated when reading takes place. And according to Foucault's Power and Discourse theory, translation is never done in vacuum since it is always interfered with by such factors as history, culture, ideology and morality. Habermas' communicative action theory offers much guide to find new criteria for translation. Translation is a kind of communicative action, in which subjects share their experience in the objective, social, subjective worlds to reach mutual understanding with help of language. In accordance with Habermas' communicative rationality, Prof. Lu Jun formulates a set of minimum criteria, which guarantees the trend of pluralism and enacts necessary limitations as well. Based on his result, this dissertation formulates a new model of criteria, which can function as a goal for translators to pursue: (1) obedience of the objectivity of knowledge; (2) in accordance with the social regulations and...