An Analysis Of The Subtitle Translation Of Hero From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

As a new field of translation, study of film subtitle translation is attracting more and more attention. The past research mainly focused on time and space constraints, its relevance to multimedia translation, strategies adopted, quality control and standardizations. This paper attempts to analyze, from the perspective of Skopostheorie, factors influencing strategies adopted in subtitle translation.According to Skopostheorie, film subtitle translation is a purposeful activity with a regular assignment to convey, within the constraints of time and space, the director's intention by providing the most relevant information to the audience in a specific culture. The specific Skopos is up to each film, which leads to the particular strategy. This is the application of "Skopos rule" in film subtitle translation. The Skopos of translated film subtitles is jointly determined by the intention of the director as initiator and the audience as TT receivers. The form of translated film subtitles is determined by its Skopos and the interpretation of subtitler. According to Skopostheorie, coherence rule demands intratextual coherence within the TT as well as its target situation;fidelity rule (intertextual coherence) illustrates the relationship between TT and ST with the source being dialogues in the film and the target text the translated subtitles. There must be some relationship between TT and ST, the degree of which is determined by the Skopos of each specific film. Intertextual coherence is considered subordinate to intratextual coherence, and both are subordinated to the Skopos rule, which indicates that in film subtitle translation, acceptability is prior to fidelity;the criterion is adequacy instead of equivalence.Applying Skopostheorie to the translation of film subtitles in Hero, it can be concluded that, its director Zhang Yimou attempted to gain box office with a mainstream film that catered to the taste of western audience with exquisite image, breath-taking fight, elaborate special effect, vivid sound effect rather than with the deep theme or profound Chinese culture. On the other hand, western audience tends to pay more attention to image than to plot while watching a film. They expected Hero to be fun and attractive. The intention of Zhang Yimou and expectation of audience determine the Skopos of translated subtitles of Hero: Ensure the audience to understand subtitles withthe least effort so that they can pay more attention to other elements, e.g., image, sound effect and special effect. Linda Jaivin, the subtitler who carried out the translation brief of Zhang Yimou's , neglected cultural factors and translated subtitles with simple syntax and concise semantics by widely employing adaptation and deletion on the precondition of ensuring intratextual coherence of the subtitles, which helps improve the legibility and connectivity. Her treatment of the subtitle translation of Hero fulfills its Skopos and can be convincingly illustrated from the perspective of Skopostheorie.In this paper, chapter 1 introduces the research background of film subtitle translation;chapter 2 makes a brief introduction to the features of film subtitle translation;chapter 3 makes a literature review;chapter 4 analyzes the film subtitle translation in the light of Skopostheorie;chapter 5 makes a case study of Hero;chapter 6 draws the conclusion.