Creative Treason In Literary Translation

There are lots of definitions of translation. In fact, translation is a complicated activity which concerns many factors. Translation theory has traditionally stressed the establishment of translation criteria and traditional studies have thus focused mainly on the comparison of source and target texts, taking "fidelity" as the highest criterion. Translators were always placed in a dilemma between fidelity and treason. The Italian saying "traduttore, traditore" (translator, traitor) reflects the dilemma in literary translation: creativity and treason coexists.This thesis first introduces the relevant study to creative treason by scholars both at home and abroad and then illustrates reasons of the occurrence of various kinds of creative treason and their cultural significance. The difference, collision, interaction and communication between source and target cultures are prominently represented in creative treason. "Creative treason " makes people think about the essence and characteristics of translation on a higher level. Lin Shu and Pound are prominent representatives of the phenomenon of creative treason. The reasons of creative treason include not only linguistic factors but cultural differences.With the "cultural turn" as one of the most important dimensions that translation studies gained in the late 20th century, translation studies and researches have broken through traditional linguistic and aesthetic pattern and come into a stage of cultural introspection. Great importance has been attached to the study of translation from cultural perspective. Cultural study approaches to literary translation is a descriptive research, which means that the focus of this kind of study is not on the comparison of source and target texts or the compliance of translated texts with translation criteria, but on the historical and socio-cultural contexts in which specific translated texts come into being. And then through the analysis of the roles these translated texts have played in the target culture, the difference and collision between source and target cultures and all kinds of difference, collision and distortion in the process of literary translation can be revealed.Taking the theories of cultural schools (mainly polysystem theory, rewriting theory and manipulation theory) as its theoretical framework, this thesis discusses the translation activities of Lin Shu and Pound, and attempt to prove the inevitability and cultural significance of creative treason in literary translation from multi-angles of cultural perspective, hoping that such an analysis may throw some light or offer certain implications and reflection for translation theoretical study and translation practice.