On The Creative Treason In English Subtitle Translation

In recent years, films play an important role in information dissemination and cultural exchanges. Thus, English film subtitles translation has drawn attention in the translation field. Because of the restrictions of subtitle translation and the cultural differences in China and western countries, it’s difficult to follow the traditional principle of "faithfulness". Therefore, creative treason can be often seen in subtitle translation. This paper aims to elaborate the representation forms of creative treason through the analysis of the subtitle translation cases. This statement was put forward by a French sociologist called Robert Escarpit in 1987, which refers to some creative translation actions by a translator under a certain recreation motivation. Because of the differences in culture and the special features of subtitle translation, creative treason is inevitable. Creative treason can be seen both in language and culture. Due to the restrictions of time and space in subtitle translation, and the different expression habits in China and western countries, the representation forms of creative treason are misinterpretation and omission at the level of language. At the level of culture, the representation forms are cultural literal translation, cultural transplantation and cultural coordination. Moderate creative treason in subtitle translation can help audiences understand the film better. However, some of the representations of creative treason in subtitle translation are improper. Too much creative treason makes it hard to convey the original information accurately, and sometimes even give rise to misunderstanding. Moderate creative treason representation can make the subtitle translation easier for the target audiences to understand while excessive representation of it can also make the viewer confused.