A Study Of The Translator’s Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Translation Ethics

In the history of translation studies, there have been two turns. The first one islinguistic turn. It took place in the late fifties of last century with the emergence andblossom of modern linguistics. Translation theorists’approaching to the translationstudies mainly focuses on the question of“correspondence”and“equivalence”. Thesecond turn, cultural turn, which took place in the end of the 20thcentury, was putforward by Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere. Translation studies of this kindmainly focus on the angle of the history, society, and culture, etc, covering the issuesof poetics, ideology, patronage and many other factors beyond texts.With the trend of“ethical return”in the academic world, ethical studies havestepped into the field of translation and have explored a new world. The return toethics serves as assistance for translation theorists to synthesize the accomplishmentsof previous researches, to reexamine the relationship of various kinds in translationfrom the perspective of translation ethics so as to regulate translation activities withthe thought of translation ethics.As an active code-transferring activity, translation must be affected by manyfactors among which the translator’s subjectivity is one of the most significant onegoing through in the whole process of translation. The translator’s subjectivity refersto the subjective initiative of a translator, as the translating subject, under theprecondition of respecting objective translation environment on the basis of the fullawareness of the cultural needs of the target language. It has the characteristics of purposiveness, restrictiveness and creativity, which are not only manifested in theselection of a source text, translation strategies and cultural purpose, but also in theinterpreting of the source text and the recreation of the linguistic characteristic.Based on the new and comprehensive theory——Chesterman’s five models oftranslation ethics, this thesis carries out a study of the translator’s subjectivity in theChinese version of Pride and Prejudice. According to the study, in translating Prideand Prejudice, the translator employs different models of translation ethics due todifferent situations: in dealing with the linguistic issues, the translator mainly employsnorm-based ethics; while with the stylistic situation, he follows representation ethicsin most cases; as for the cultural elements, ethics of communication is employed.Through the study of the relationship between the translator’s subjectivity andtranslation ethics, this thesis intends to clarify the significance of translation ethicsand contribute little to the innovation practice of the translation study.