On Translator’s "Creative Treason" From The Perspective Of Inter-subjectivity

The "cultural turn" in1980s has provided the historical and cultural perspective for translation study. And the exploration of the ignored translator groups, which have the translation works with extensive social influence, has become one of the major tasks since then. Moreover, the rapidly developing commodity economy in post-modern society has become the impetus of "popular culture". In this circumstance, the translations of new literature forms have occupied more market share, and they also have anincreasingly comprehensive influence on social culture. Among these new literature forms, the translations of "new comic"have an even better performance in marketing because of its advantage in spreading and have especially profound influence on the young people and the whole popular culture. However, the present situation of translation study is not conformed to the need of culture. The literature forms represented by new comic have not been specifically researched, and few researches have analyzed the translation texts of these literature formswith the consideration of historical and cultural context. And the comic Mafalda has never been concerned by researchers though it is one of the mostly accepted translation works of comic, and the study of comic translations from the perspective of translation subject has not been paid enough attention to,either.The proposition of "creative treason" and "inter-subjectivity" has originally aimed at deconstructing the logos centralism and constructing the equal conversation of source context and target context or of the subjects involved. But as an actual description of the translator’s unavoidable "misunderstanding" in translating, the translator’s "creative treason" has been mostly used to deconstruct the "centralism" of original text and construct the equal relationship between translator and author or original text. Even some researchers have regarded it as an overstatement of translator’s subjectivity and have tried to figure out a limit for the "treason". So only a few researches have considered "creative treason" as a fact containing inter-subjectivity, and even fewer of them have concerned the changeable and complicated characteristics of its inter-subjectivity in the historical and cultural context.This paper will taketranslator Sanmao and her comic translation Wa Wa Kan Tian Xia, which has had the most recipients among all her translations, as the case anddiscuss the translator’s "creative treason" from the perspective of inter-subjectivity. And it will explore the characteristics of the inter-subjectivity reflected in translator’s "creative treason" based on the specific historical and cultural context of the case.The subjects of translator’s "creative treason" include the translator and recipient environment. And the subjectivity of recipient environment contains the activity of all recipients and it influences the translator’s "creative treason" mainly by forming the translator’s "Vorverstandnis". This paper has firstly reviewed the specific historical and cultural context of the case and summarized the two features of Taiwan literature from1950s to1980s that closely related to this case, the diversifying of literary themes and the rising of women’s literature. And these two features had prominently presented the changing relationship between political ideology and poetics of this period. Based on it, this paper has analyzed the impacts of ideology and poetics controlled by the "differentiated patronage" on the source-text selection and translation strategies choosing of translator’s "creative treason" with Lefevere’s theory. As the patron of this translation, the Taiwan Crown Business was also the important connecting factor between the translator, who was living far away from Taiwan, and the recipient environment. It provided the translator the most direct information about the reader’s response. So the patronage of publisher had played a much more important role in this case, and it had even influenced the source-text selection directly. As for the aspect of ideology and poetics, the political ideology of original comic conformed to the recipient environment while its humorous tone and ridicule of poetics actually accorded with the poetics trend that had been getting rid of the political control with the "differentiated patronage". Moreover, the easier policies and development of economy had resulted in the change of market demand, which provided the recipient condition for the exotic Argentine comic. And all these had facilitated the source-text selection of translator. Furthermore, the translator had used the translation strategies both at the level of words translating and the level of humor effects to make her "creative treason" conformed to the ideology and poetics controlled by the "differentiated patronage". And the translator’s subjective understanding and explaining of her used translation strategies in the case rooted in the mainstream translation poetics of Taiwan while her actual using of them in translating had mostly conformed to the political ideology of recipient environment.Considering Sanmao’s prominent embodiment of feminine consciousness in writing, and in order to figure out whether there exists similar embodiment in her translation, this paper has mainly used Flotow’s theory of Feminist Translation Strategies to analyze the translator’s prefacing, footnoting, supplementing and hijacking. And it reveals that she had presented her independent feminine consciousness in a more prominent and intense way. And this paper has also figured out that the translator had added the children’s stylistic features to the translation and weakened its political features. This "creative treason" has presented the translator’s effort to include the children in target recipients, which embodied the subjectivity of translator. And for its relation to the feminine consciousness of translator, the analysis of the features of children’s literature reflected in translation is based on the translator’s prefacing, footnoting and other strategies similar with the feminist translation strategies. It is prominent that the translator’s fierce and intense presentation of gender poetics was not conformed to the contemporary poetics trend, especially to the contemporary feminine poetics in Taiwan. Moreover, the presetting of target reader could change the forming of recipient environment subject. These reflected that the "treason" actually had happened both to the original text and recipient environment, which made the translator seems the center of the subjects of "creative treason". However, when combining the analysis of translator’s subjectivity with that of recipient environment’s subjectivity, it could be seen that the translator had emphasized and advocated her political ideology built by recipient environment on one hand; but on the other hand, she had weakened the political features of translation as a whole to suit the taste of preset target recipients. Each side of this result had conformed to at least one of the controlled factors, ideology and poetics, dominated by the "differentiated patronage" in recipient environment. And this reflected that the continuous interlacing and interaction of recipient environment’s subjectivity and translator’s subjectivity in the "creative treason". So the inter-subjectivity of translator’s "creative treason" in this case has demonstrated the characteristics of dynamic and complicated, which will be more prominent when these is the "differentiated patronage".This paperis an effort to introduce inter-subjectivity to the understanding of the translator’s "creative treason", and it tries to bring translator Sanmao and her translations into translation study. Moreover, this study may help to raise the concern on the marginal literature forms represented by comic Mafaldawhich has an extensive influence on social culture.