Arthur Waley's Creatively Treasononous Translation Of The Journey To The West

As one of the most important sinologists in the 20th century, Arthur Waley made great contributions to the translation of the Chinese literature to the English world. He translated a great number of ancient Chinese poems and the great works of the masters of the Pre-Qin Era. Meanwhile, he studied the lives and thoughts of several great poets in ancient China. Waley knew quite well of ancient Chinese novels and wrote prefaces to the English translations of several Chinese novels. But he only translated one long Chinese novel, i.e. Journey to the West, under the title of Monkey. This dissertation takes"translation is creative treason"as its theoretical basis to study Waley's translation of The Journey to the West. Taking the era background of the translation and Waley's thoughts as realistic foundation, I analyze the translator's characteristic translation and his understanding and recreation of the theme of the novel in a particular period. This dissertation aims to find out how the translator realized"creative treason"successfully in his translation.This dissertation is composed of three chapters. The first chapter has two parts, one analyzing the former critics'comments on Monkey and the other explicating the origin and evolution of the theory of"translation is creative treason"; the second chapter observes and studies the subjectivity of the translator in his translation by analyzing his translating method; the third chapter studies Waley's realistic understanding and recreation of the theme of Journey to the West by reviewing the context of WWII, the characteristics of Waley's thoughts and the translator's recreation of the"heroic spirit"by his depiction of Monkey. It's Waley's creatively treasonous translation that made Monkey a piece of unique work.