Creative Treason In The Translation Of Mudan Ting From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Having considered “faithfulness” or “fidelity” as the ultimate goal in translationfor a long time, we still can’t reach absolute faithfulness in many cases in spite of ourpains-taking efforts. Then, how to render the information and image more accurately?Are there any other phenomena and translation standards in translation besides“fidelity”? This study endeavors to have some tentative discussions and analyses onthese questions, so that readers can accurately understand the objective phenomena intranslation and get some new understandings about translation criteria. Besides, itmakes us pay more attention to the translators’ subjective initiative, respect andrecognize the translators’ achievements and contributions in translation activities.This thesis endeavors to have a tentative study of creative treason in thetranslation of our dramatic classic—Mudan Ting from the perspective of AdaptationTheory. Creative treason was first put forward by the French comparative literalistEscarpit in1958. The creation in literary translation indicates translators’ endeavor tomake reappearance of original literary works, while treason means translators’deviation of the original text for some specific purposes. Due to the uniquecharacteristics and aesthetic values of literary works; the phenomena of creativetreason are especially obvious in literary translation. As one of the most excellentrepresentatives of Chinese traditional drama, Mudan Ting naturally shows the marksof Chinese traditional culture. Then what kinds of creative treason happened intranslating these unique cultural images? And why have these phenomena occurred?Based on these research questions, this thesis tries to make some comparisonsbetween Mudan Ting’s Chinese version and the English version (translated by WangRongpei) and conclude these phenomena of creative treason, and then this thesisendeavors to make a series of concrete analyses about the performances and causes ofcreative treason in the light of Adaptation Theory. Besides, this thesis ventures tohave a tentative study on the relationship between creative treason and “fidelity”.We’ve got these findings by this research: There indeed exist various phenomenaof creative treason both at contextual level and structural level. By classifying thesephenomena and analyzing them from the perspective of Adaptation Theory, this thesisventures to conclude the causes of creative treason. They are: variability, negotiabilityand adaptability of language in Adaptation Theory have provided the possibility forcreative treason; and the contextual correlates adaptation and structural objects adaptation make the occurrence of creative treason an inevitable choice. This thesisalso gives us a new understanding of the relationship between creative treason and“fidelity”. It finds that creative treason is a necessary complement to fidelity in spiteof some contradictions on superficial level，sometimes translators inevitably makesome creative treasons in order to adapt to the acceptability level and reading habitsof target readers. Creative treason and “fidelity” own the same purpose: to accuratelyrender the original text to the greatest extent and make target readers understand thetext easily and appreciate the unique charm of Chinese traditional culture. Theinteraction between creative treason and fidelity can ensure a better result in literarytranslation.