Questioning contemporary theoretical approaches to translation in terms of translation ethics

Abstract

This study is intended to draw attention to the significance of the ethics of translation in the theoretical field of Translation Studies and to provide an account of the phenomena of ideological manipulation in translation focusing on its theoretical assessment in terms of the ethics of translation. The descriptive, target-oriented approach, the functionalist approach (Skopostheorie) and the post-structuralist approaches to translation are questioned in terms of their accounts of translational ethics and their conceptions and assessments of ideological manipulation in translation. A case of ideological manipulation violating the ethics of translation is demonstrated by the presentation of a number of quotations from The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1888), which are selectively de(con)textualized, translated and reflected as the translations of Charles Darwin's and his friends' “confessions” about the failure of the theory of evolution by the creationist Adnan Oktar in his book Evrimcilerin !tirafları [The Confessions of The Evolutionists] which is written under the pen name Harun Yahya in 1999. Through the comparative analysis of these translated quotations and their original contexts, that is, the letters and passages they are quoted from, and also by the presentation of a comprehensive account of the social, historical and theoretical background of the case at hand, it is claimed that this case of ideological manipulation, taking its intended purposes, serious implications and its deceptive strategy into consideration, is doubtlessly against ethics. As a result of the questionings and analyses conducted for this thesis. It is concluded that the contemporary translation theories in question are inadequate and lacking as to their emphases on the ethics of translation and that they fail to propose the necessary criteria to assess ideological manipulation in translation in terms of translation ethics.