"Faithfulness, Expressiveness, And Elegance" As Lensed Through Translation Ethics

Translation ethics is an influential branch theory of translation studies. Ten years'development since its formation has shaped the study into an independent subject which involves a large research faculty and systematical definition and interpretation. The"ethical turn", many translation theorists name the trend after"linguistic turn"and"cultural turn"of translation studies.This paper is entitled"'Faithfulness, Expressiveness, and Elegance'As Lensed through Translation Ethics", with the intention of clarifying the development orbit of translation ethics and its significance for translation studies as a whole. Starting from the ontological observation into ethics and morality, this thesis discloses the inner connection of ethics and social phenomenon, translation in particular, and reveals the different trends of translation ethics studies between the West and China.Along with the philosophical meditations in different periods, western translation ethics studies have undergone two major switches as oneness to multiplicity and sameness to difference, emphasizing the responsibility of intersubjectivity; Chinese translation ethics studies comparatively inherit the aesthetic tradition of judgment, Debates on translation standard in the history have well demonstrated the difference.Yan Fu and his well-known proposal of"faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance"are set as a case for ethical approaches to translation studies. Yan Fu, the social being with strong sense of responsibility, believed gradual but urgent reform of Chinese society. He carefully follows the ethics of both the West and China and introduced to his target readers modern thoughts of the West."Faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance"as is illustrated in the very primitive sense is the condensed miniature of Yan Fu as a translator and reform advocate.This thesis takes Yan Fu as the typical example for illustration and goes deep into"faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance"respectively. With the panoramic overview of translation studies evolvement and external guiding rules rooted in translators'mind, translation ethics is thus oriented reasonably and invites further studies in this aspect.