A Study on the Creative Treason of Media-translatology in the Translation of Western Fairy Tales—The Case of Grimm's Fairy Tales

Abstract

Compared with adults, children have different reading levels, acceptance abilities and special aesthetic and growth needs, which means fairy tale translation has its particularities. Because of this characteristic, the translator cannot translate the original work completely and faithfully according to the traditional translation theory. The "creative treason" theory of media-translatology believes that there are differences between languages, which means translators inevitably "treason" against the original work in different degrees. Thus, it is necessary to treat the translation of children's literature from the perspective of "creative treason". This paper focuses on the connection between translation of children's literature and creative treason, taking the fairy tale Grimm's Fairy Tales as an example, and focuses on the specific application of "creative treason" in fairy tales. Through the analysis, it is found that the "creative treason" is in line with the requirements and purposes of children's literature translation, which is indeed a new idea for children's literature translation.