Introduction to Medio-Translatology

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to medio-translatology, including its historical and literary setting, its core concept, and its practice and theory. Medio-translatology, inspired by scholarship in comparative literature and the 'cultural turn' in Western translation studies, has tackled many issues which previously went unnoticed or were ignored in traditional translation studies in China; it falls within the scope of literary studies and cultural studies, extending beyond the confines of language and treating literary translations and translating as historical facts.

Emerging from comparative literature, medio-translatology looks at literary translation from a new and broader perspective, and explains, with illustrative and compelling examples, that literary translation is 'an act of creative treason.' The originality of this approach is also evident in its distinguishing between the history of translated literature and the history of literary translation, as well as in its addressing the nature and status of translated literature.

The Chinese edition of this book, being the first of its kind and well received in China, has been hailed as a milestone in exploring translation studies in the context of comparative literature in Chinese academia, and it introduces to students and researchers alike a wide range of new thoughts and ideas.

Xie Tianzhen was Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Institute for Translation Studies at Shanghai International Studies University; he was also a guest professor or taught on a part-time basis at Peking University, Fudan University, and Sichuan International Studies University, among several others. He published extensively on comparative literature (including medio-translatology), translation theory, and translation history, and is widely recognized as a pioneer in the area of medio-translatology, as well as one of the most important founders of translation studies as a separate discipline in China. He was Editor-in-Chief of the official journal of the Chinese Comparative Literature Association (CCLA) - Zhongguo Bijiao Wenxue (Comparative Literature in China) - and of Dongfang Fanyi (East Journal of Translation), as well as an editorial board member of Chinese Translators Journal, a member of the Translation Theory and Teaching Committee of the Chinese Translators Association, and a member of the Translation Committee of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA). Furthermore, he was President of the Shanghai Comparative Literature Association, President of the Translation Studies Society (affiliated with CCLA), and Vice President of the CCLA.