Exploring Translation Ethics Of Scholar Translators

Translation is a cross-cultural activity with a long history. As long as trans-culturalcontacts between different nations and different countries occur, the issues of ethics will beinevitably generated. The nature of translation decides that the translation activities andstudies need the guidance of translation ethics. Different types of translators own differentethics inclination. This thesis selects examples from the scholar translator Kinkley’stranslated version of Bian Cheng, systematically analyzes his translation strategies andconcludes his translation ethics inclination based on Chesterman’s five translation ethicsmodels.Bian Cheng is the representative work of Shen Congwen and it has won greatreputations in the world. The previous translation studies on it focus on the aestheticrepresentation, the stylistic features and the translation methods of it. Few researches see itfrom the angle of translation ethics, not mention that of a particular type of translators.Hence, this thesis is some kind of innovative and provides a new perspective to thetranslation studies of Bian Cheng. Under the framework of Chesterman’s translation ethicsmodels, the paper attempts to investigate and conclude the translation ethical inclination ofscholar translators to mediate and cope with “Self” and “the Other”.The results of discussion reveal that in the literary translation, of the five models thescholar translator inclines towards ethics of representation and ethics of communication;that he or she mediates the conflicts by the general ethics of professional commitment; andthat the higher the academic background of the translator is, the greater the inclination ofthe translator is towards ethics of representation and ethics of communication. Thus, it canbe concluded that translation ethics models can provide effective references for thetranslation studies and offer important guidelines in the field of translation.