An Analysis Of The Subtitle Translation In The Founding Of A Republic From The Functionalist Perspective

With the increasing demand for the foreign film market distribution of Chinese films, subtitle translation, mostly adopting English which is the most popular world language, plays a more and more important role. The studies related to the subtitle translation come to gain sufficient attention. Most of the past studies were subtitle translating from English to Chinese rather than from Chinese to English. Besides, these studies tried to testify a theory applicable to all types of films without considering their different characteristics. In view of this, the author attempts to conduct a systematic study on subtitle translation of historical films within the framework of the German functionalist translation theories.From the functionalist perspective, the subtitle translation is a constrained activity by its skopos, which should be defined before the starting of translation. Subtitle translation is also an interpersonal interaction, involving many agents. It is then an intercultural translation in which the difference between ST and TT cultures should be largely considered for achieving the right understanding and interpretation of the film by the TT audience. In addition, subtitle translation is a text-processing action, which requires an analysis of both ST and TT profiles in order to adapt the appropriate translation techniques to reach the translation skopos.The case of The Founding of a Republic is analyzed from the functionalist perspective. The reason to choose this film lies in that it carries the characteristic of the epic film. The author evaluates the translation by detailed analysis to testify the validity of functionalist theories. It is proved that translated subtitle should be accepted and comprehended by the TT audience. The translation activity should be conducted under the translation brief or commission with consideration of the fidelity rule, intertextual coherence and intratextual coherence.