A Study On Chinese Subtitles Of American Films From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Nowadays the spread and exchange of cultures between different parts of this "village" is becoming more rapid and more frequent. Film, as an important carrier of culture, has become an important way for people's understanding of the outside world. Since the implementation of China's reform and opening-up policy, more and more foreign films, especially the British and American films, among which there are the Hollywood films, have swarmed into China, and then are welcomed and loved by the Chinese audiences. In order to appreciate these foreign films, the audiences take a variety of methods for the understanding of the dialogues and subtitles appearing in the films. In addition to the method of dubbing, what is now more common is the method of film subtitle translation. Film subtitle translation is a relatively new field of translation, although researches in this area have made great achievements, but as a whole, the theory on film subtitle translation is not yet mature. Up to now, there is no such a common theory that it is accepted by all on film subtitle translation. Based on such reality, this thesis attempts to explore a new perspective for film subtitle translation in order to find appropriate theory base and ways and make its contribution to the building-up of the theory for film subtitle translation. And what's more, the current practices on film subtitle translation are just some tentative and voluntary practices by the film-lovers. Sometimes the quality of translation is debatable. So this thesis will be of some significance for translation practice.This thesis attempts to study subtitle translation from the perspective of reception aesthetics. Reception Aesthetics is an important literary theory, which emphasizes that the focus of the study of literary works should be shifted from the text to the readers, because different readers with different historical backgrounds will have a different understanding of a same works. Only though the acceptance can the texts be called works. Reception aesthetics requires that full range analysis of the readers is necessary. And the films'subtitles are essentially text forms. When the translators translate the films'subtitles, they must take into account the audiences'ability of acceptance, and try their best to get the "fusion of horizons" with the audiences'expectations. In order to get the "fusion of horizons" with the audiences'expectations, the translators in the specific translation practice should be fully aware of the main part of the audiences, and conduct a comprehensive analysis of the potential audiences, and follow related principles of translation and then take appropriate and flexible methods. In addition, special attention should be given to the transmission of cultural factors in the process of translation.This thesis is done under the combination of theory and practice. So this thesis firstly introduces the theoretical bases and then applies it in practice with examples. This thesis is divided into five chapters, the first chapter is about the rationale, significance and frame structure; the second chapter is the literature review, and it describes the researches on film subtitle translation in the past both in the west and in China. The third chapter focuses on reception aesthetics as well as the applicability of reception aesthetics to the film subtitle translation. Chapter IV focuses on how the film subtitle translation should be carried out under the reception aesthetics and selects subtitles in Avatar as examples to be discussed. Chapter Five is the conclusion part, and it does a review of the entire thesis, and then points out the limitations of this thesis.Researching from the perspective of reception aesthetics on film subtitle translation is the starting point of this thesis. The principles and strategies of film subtitle translation under the guidance of reception aesthetics are the focus of this thesis. The thesis points out:the major principle of subtitles translation is that they should reflect the basic dialogues and background information appearing in the films: translating according to the overall evaluation of the potential readers is the basic principle of film subtitles translation. This thesis has its limits:it doesn't focus on the Chinese-English translation of the Chinese films:it lacks depth because of the authors' own observation. Hopefully, this study on film subtitle translation can give some help to improve the level of the current film subtitle translation and help us deepen our awareness and understanding of translation theory at the macro level.