An Analysis Of The Constructivist Translation Ethics

In recent years, translation theory no longer dwelled on the problem of"how to translate", but started to discuss"who is translating". The discussions of the translator's gender, nationality, the purpose of the translation, the translator's ethics and beliefs were emphasized. Feminism, post-colonialism and deconstructive translation theories made translation studies in the 1990s a prospering discipline. The problem of ethics returned to the field of translation studies. Translation scholars concerned themselves with different aspects of"loyalty"in translation and factors of translation ethics. Some paid attention to translators'responsibilities to readership, some paid more attention to the original text itself ethics, and the others concerned themselves with translator's subjectivity. This thesis discusses constructivist translation ethics.At the beginning of the thesis, a revision the history of translation theory or three stages of translation studies is given. The traditional translation studies thought the translated text should be faithful to reproduce the original content and the original author's intention. Addition or deletion all were criticized as unfaithful translation. Although recent years, translation studies paid more and more attention to discrepancy and cultural differences, many translation theory researchers still regard"faithfulness"as translation's ethical standards. The definitions of"faithfulness"are also different and various, in the other words, people have different ideas about'who is the translation faithful to'. With the deconstruction of the traditional concept of"faithfulness"by deconstructionists and constructivist, translation scholars realized that faithfulness to the original meaning is not a sufficient criterion for translation practice.This thesis expounds and analyses the concept of constructivist translation ethics, and this ethics'significant on translation practice. Its theoretical root is Habermas'"communication ethics"or"discussethics". This theory emphasizes that communication among the main participants would be through dialogue, consultation, discussion and consensus to achieve the purpose of communication. The thesis concludes that constructivist translation ethics'can help with promoting cultural exchange, preserving cultural factors, keeping the cultural diversity in the world; decreasing culture erosion as far as possible in the process of translating, and constituting harmonious cultural communication.At the end of the thesis, the thesis concludes constructivist translation ethics is applied to advertising translation, scientific translation, literary translation and tourist translation. The thesis argues that the constructivist translation ethics has specific guidance for the translation of different stylistic texts. The thesis draws a conclusion: constructivist translation ethics provides new evaluation perspective for translation practice; constructivist translation ethics also offers a broader space for translation study.All in all, constructivist translation ethics plays a positive role in constructing harmonious cultural communication and promoting cultural diversity under the background of cultural globalization.