Rethinking Translation Ethics From The Perspective Of Intersubjectivity

Translation studies has gone through a transformation from the traditionaltranslation ethics of “faithfulness” to the fall of translation ethics caused by thecultural turn and to the final recognition of the inevitability of “the return to theethics”. Translation ethics concentrates on how the translator makes moral choicesand value judgment and deals with interpersonal relationship in the course oftranslating activity. The four models of translation ethics put forward by Finnishscholar Andrew Chesterman have provided translation ethics with powerfultheoretical support. In essence, what translation ethics copes with is the issue of“faithfulness” and different models of translation ethics are faithful to differentsubjects. His theory has incorporated a great many different thoughts of translationethics and paved the way for deliberating on translation thoughts and practice.Meanwhile, ethics is called to be a discipline of studying human being’sbehaviors, moral judgment and evaluation criteria. Most ethicists admit that theobjective of studying is to seek for a theory used for adjusting interpersonalrelationship, maintaining social order and nurturing virtuous people. However,translating activity is right a complicated process involving multiple subjects and thesubjectivity each subject displays at different stages has constituted complexrelationship among multiple subjects. From the perspective of intersubjectivity, thedissertation has reviewed the history and status quo of the study of translation subjectsand has done a textual analysis of the Chinese version of Tess of the d’Urbervillestranslated by Zhang Guruo and has concluded that by altering the subjectivity-basedmode of thinking and discussing multiple subjects’ inner relationships in translation,is it possible for each subject to identify with and respect one another by equaldialogue and interaction. Under such circumstances, it is likely to solve someconundrums which translation studies are faced with and reduce unequal phenomenain translation with the purpose of promoting the study of translation ethics.