Translators' Ethics Of The Three-Body Problem And The Dark Forest

On August 23,2015,the Hugo Award for Best Novel was awarded to The Three-Body Problem,the first volume of the sci-fi trilogy titled Remembrance of Earth's Past by the Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin,by the 73 rd World Science Fiction Convention(Worldcon).It was the first time that the Chinese sci-fi writers had won the Hugo Award,the highest prize for science fiction works in the world.3 What's more,the English version of The Three Body-Problem was nominated for the 2014 Nebula Award for the Best Novel by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America(SFWA)and four other awards.The great success of The Three-Body Problem in the literary circles abroad is owed not merely to the author,but also to the translator;the translator's important contribution cannot be left unrecognized.Without the translator's outstanding translation,The Three-Body Problem would not have had the above-mentioned honors in the literary circles abroad.Thus,the translators of Liu Cixin's sci-fi trilogy and their translations are worth a study.Based mainly upon Andrew Chesterman's theory of translation ethics,this thesis analyzes the two translators' ethics embodied in their translations of the trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Past.In his article “Proposal for a Hieronymic Oath”,the Finnish scholar Chesterman puts forward four models of translation ethics,viz.,ethics of representation,ethics of service,ethics of communication and norm-based ethics.Accordingly,from the perspectives of faithful representation and back-translation,contractual ethics and utilitarian ethics,this thesis examines the two translators' ethical performances in their translations of the first and the second volumes of Liu Cixin's sci-fi trilogy.4After analysis,this thesis points out that in their practical translations of Liu Cixin's sci-fi novels,the two translators,Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen,make different ethical decisions or choices according to different leading values and different translation purposes;and basically speaking,they are ethically justified in terms of Chesterman's translation ethics even though they cannot give their considerations simultaneously to all Chesterman's four models of translation ethics.Moreover,this thesis presents such important translation ethics as faithful representation of science,back-translation of scientific terms,faithful service for bilingual readers,complying with the codes of the professional translators' associations,etc.to enrich the existing theories of translation ethics.This thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter one serves as an introduction,principally presenting the research topic,its background and significance,literature review,research methods,theoretical framework,and the overall structure of the thesis.Chapters two-four are the main body of the thesis.Chapter two mainly analyzes the two translators' ethics embodied in their representations of the source texts,the source culture and science with its focus on the translators' faithful representation and back-translation ethics.Chapter three concentrates on the two translators' contractual ethics embodied in their translations,including their service ethics and norm-based ethics.Chapter four focuses on the two translators' utilitarian ethics or communication ethics.Chapter five is the conclusion of the thesis,summarizing the main ideas and views,academic insights and research findings,and presenting the limitation of the thesis and what needs further studies.