Creative Infidelity In English Translation Of Chinese Fiction

Lao Can You Ji is one of Liu E’s prominent works.It is viewed as one of four critical novels in the late Qing dynasty.There are a lot o f descriptions over traditional Chinese culture in this novel,including opera,traditional Chinese medicine,food and river control.Meanwhile,this novel has been translated into many languages.Among all the published English versions of Lao Can You Ji,Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s version,and Harold Shadick’s version enjoy the greatest popularity.Later on,Geng Zhi and Xiao Liming retranslated it,which marks the advent of the third complete English version of Lao Can You Ji.At the moment,the studied on Lao Can You Ji are mostly conducted from the perspectives of adaptation theory,skopos theory,and retranslation.Few of them are conducted from the view of creative infidelity.Generally,it is said that creative infidelity is firstly mentioned by Escarpit,a French literary socialist.However,when the author goes through relevant papers about creative infidelity,she finds that Argentinian translator Jorge Luis Borges has already put forward this term since 1935.Creative infidelity recognizes the translator’s subjectivity in translation.It turns the translator’s role to visible from invisible.Creative infidelity has a positive meaning in literary translation.However,there is no denying that with the publishing of more and more literary translation,the negative role that creative infidelity plays in translation is becoming more evident.Some translators unfaithfully translate the literature work under the name of creative infidelity,which exerts negative impacts on literary translation.Focusing on the creative infidelity in the three English versions of Lao Can You Ji,this thesis attempts to unveil the way how creative infidelity is reflected in the three English versions,the translation techniques used in the three English versions,and the effects that creative infidelity exerts in the three English versions of Lao Can You Ji.The author finds that creative infidelity is mainly reflected in sign and sense.Specifically,the sign means rhyme,form,and language,while the sense means spirit,content,and meaning.Creative infidelity is also reflected in the translator ’s sensitivity.That being said,it is reflected in the translation techniques employed by the translators.Translators mainly use these translation techniques such as substitution,deletion,and mistranslation to achieve creative infidelity.Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang are inclined to achieve creative infidelity by the techniques of deletion and mistranslation.Harold Shadick prefers to employ substitution and mistranslation to reflect his creative infidelity in the translation.As to Geng Zhi and Xiao Liming,they are more inclined to present the creative infidelity by the translation techniques of substitution and mistranslation.Thirdly,creative infidelity destroys the rhyme,form,language,spirit,content,and meaning in the original work.