Functional translation theories and ethics

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the ways in which ethical issues have been discussed by functionalist translation scholars and to illustrate the development from the formal rejection of ethics in the 1980s to an active advocacy of functionalist translation ethics in the new millennium. The chapter will first provide a short overview of the central ideas and concepts of Hans J. Vermeer’s “Skopos theory” and Justa Holz-Mänttäri’s “theory of translational action” and then trace ethical issues in the two authors’ works. This will be followed by an overview of the discussion on the necessity of ethical boundaries in relation to the eligibility of translation skopoi and an analysis of the concept of “loyalty” as introduced and elaborated by Christiane Nord. The chapter will close with an account of Erich Pruně’s attempt to conceptualize translation ethics within the functionalist paradigm in the context of “translation cultures.”