Social Sciences in China Review

No.2, 2019

 

“Creative Treason”: Original Intention and Misinterpretation—A Discussion with Professor Wang Xiangyuan (Abstract)

 

Xie Tianzhen

 

“Translation is always a creative betrayal” is a view initiated by the French literary sociologist Robert Escarpit. I have written and published a series of articles and books since the early 1990s, introducing this idea into China and attracting the attention of domestic academia, especially in the fields of comparative literature, translation and translatology. Among the theories in my book Medio-Translatology, the “creative treason” theory has had the greatest impact. At the same time, however, the unique expression “creative treason” has triggered a heated discussion in academia, resulting in some misunderstandings and misinterpretations that deviate from its original intention. Taking into account Professor Wang Xiangyuan’s many influential articles on creative treason, this article tries to engage with him on the term’s original intention.