On The Translator's Creative Treason In The Chinese Translation Of Hamlet

Traditional translation studies emphasize that translation should be carried out with the source text as the yardstick, requiring the translator to abide by the principle of absolute fidelity without any room for his creative activity, thus the existence of the translator has always been ignored. Since the 1970s, translation studies in the western have undergone a"cultural turn". This new paradigm of translation studies has broken through the prescriptive and confusingly vagueness of traditional paradigm. And the new paradigm lays emphasis on the translated text and the translator, hence the translator's identity and role as the subject of translation has been promoted to a great extent.The French literary sociologist Robert Escarpit ever claimed that translation is always a kind of creative treason. Creativity demonstrates the translator's subjective endeavors to approach and reproduce the original; while treason reflects the objective deviation of the translated text from the original text in the process of fulfilling a certain subjective intention. Creativity and treason, in fact, are interrelated and intermingled and can't be separated from each other in literary translation, hence they form a harmonious unity.Comparatively speaking, creative treason is a novel concept which is worthy of further research. Hamlet is a representative play of Shakespeare, and its versions by Zhu Shenghao and Bian Zhilin are characterized by the distinct individual style of the two translators. Therefore, the research of these two is of certain significance.This thesis firstly traces some scholars'comments on the translator in different stages of translation history and follows the shifts of translation criticism, and scientifically probes into the connotation of"creative treason", discusses studies on creative treason at home and abroad, explores the reasons for creative treason within the scope of philosophical hermeneutics, and applies the achievements of the studies on creative treason into the research on the two Chinese versions of Hamlet. After that, the thesis from two aspects, that is the translator as a reader and a re-creator, analyzes how the translator's personal preference, competence, translation principle and the special historical backgrounds functions in his selection, understanding of the original work, and expressing of the translated work. Last, the thesis points out that because of the temporal, spatial, historical and cultural factors, the translator can't be completely faithful to the original author, especially in literary translation, the translator's creative treason is inevitable. Creative treason prolongs the life of the source text, enriches language and culture of the target language. Combination of the study on the translator's creative treason and the study on the Chinese translations of Hamlet will help translation researchers to get a better understanding of creative treason, and then to carry out literary translation criticism in a more objective way. Meanwhile the author hopes to do some efforts for the Shakespeare studies in China.