Application Of Creative Treason In Press Conference Interpretation

For thousands of years, traditional translation notions home and abroad have regarded pure "fidelity" as a paramount goal. From such a perspective, the translated version is seen as "an unfaithful beauty" while the translator is labeled as "a servant""a dancer with manacles" and "an invisible man". In the1960s, Robert Escarpit, a French literary sociologist put forward the term "creative treason". He believes translation itself is a sort of creative treason and "treason" is originated from the transformation of the two languages. That is to say, during translation, the work is placed into an unexpected reference system (language). The proposal of this term recognized the existence of the unavoidable difference between the two languages and highlighted the subjectivity of the author. Besides, he broadened and deepened the old thinking that "translation is just a kind of mechanical process of decoding and encoding ", arguing that translation is "a complex communicative behavior concerning speech and speaker" and translation is an optional treason. This has provided a brand new perspective for us to look at the standard of translation.Interpretation is reputed as a "regretful art". Press conference is characterized as an activity with individuality, politics-related theme, and high pressure. Furthermore, there exist huge differences between English and Chinese linguistically and culturally. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve absolute semantic equivalence when interpretation is conducted, which also poses great difficulty for the "communicator", interpreters. Given such circumstances, the interpreter should give full play to his/her subjectivity in light of the overall situation and make some proper adjustment while giving full respect to the meaning of the original speech, which means applying creative treason. In this way, the intention of speaker can be conveyed as much as possible. However, studies on creative treason are confined to literary translation and comparative literature. Few study of creative treason is conducted on interpretation.This thesis focuses on the application of creative treason in press conference interpretation(PCI). The author first introduces press conference, roles and qualifications of a press conference interpreter, the origin and development of creative treason and its application principle as well as tactics. The author believes that creative treason is not a betrayal to "fidelity", on the contrary, appropriate creative treason can help accomplish cross-cultural communication, which is another kind of compliance with fidelity and deserves encouragement. This thesis includes much analysis of different press conference interpretations and proposes some interpretation principles and tactics of applying creative treason, hoping to provide a guidance for future study and teaching on interpretation. Besides, the author hopes to expand the further study on creative treason, arouse the attention on creative treason among various researchers, scholars as well as interpreters.