The Creative Treason Of The Translator

Creative treason, which is inherent in the process of translation, is one of the crucial concept of medio-translatology. It reveals the phenomenon of collision, exclusion and fusion during the process of translation when the original text is introduced into the target-language environment. This thesis is aimed at finding out how and why the translator's creative treason comes into being. The translation of chapter titles in two versions of Hong Lou Meng, which are translated by Yang Xianyi and Hawkes respectively, will be taken as examples in this thesis.In the introduction, the general idea of creative treason, the reason to write this paper and the current status of the study are stated.Chapter one is the discussion of creative treason. First, it is made clear what the creative treason is, how it was brought forward and discussed. The concept of philosophical hermeneutics, which is closely related to creative treason, is discussed in this chapter. According to the philosophical hermeneutics, people always bear fore-understandings. The fore-understanding is the key factor that inspires the creative treason. The fore-understanding of the translator brings him a unique way to deal with the original text and produce a unique version. Then the concept of horizon is brought into this thesis. Due to the unique fore-understanding, everyone has a unique horizon which includes the way he understands the world, the way he thinks and his knowledge in each field. When the transtation is processed, different horizons come across each other, and the collision, exclusion and fusion happening among those horizons causes and influences the creative treason. The subjectivity and intersubjectivity of the translator, which is another element related to the creative treason, is also discussed in this chapter.Chapter two is the analysis of examples. The chapter titles in two versions, A Dream of Red Mansions and The Story of the Stone, are taken as examples to analyze creative treason. The camparison of chapter titles in these two versions are made on rhetorical and cultural level. The aspects of euphemism, idioms, names, traditions and religion are discussed specifically to find out the elements which influence the creative treason in the process of translation. Chapter three is emphasized on data analysis. With the results concluded from chapter two, the the concept of creative treason is used to explain the phenomenon of that there are so much difference from these two versions. It is found out that the sponsors (publishers), ideology and poetics are the main reasons to influence the translator's creative treason. Moreover, the creative treason of the reader and the everionment accepting the translated version is another forece to influence the translator's creative treason. All the reasons of creative treason creat a "perfect version" in the translaor's mind with every single reason being crucial. The efforts made by the translator aim at reaching the "perfect version" cause creative treason.In the part of conclusion, it is stated the significance of the research of creative treason, which opens an window for people to look into the whole history of how the society is developing. It is also pointed out that there are some limitations of this thesis. Further discussions can be made to know more about creative treason.