The Functionalist Skopos Theory And Movie Title Translation

Movie translation has been flourishing in China since the implementation of her reform and opening up policy. Well translated movie titles tend to attract audiences in one culture to appreciate movies produced in another culture. Undoubtedly, movie title translation, which contributes to cultural exchanges, counts or matters a great deal. Therefore, it is necessary and worthwhile to make a study of this topic.First, the thesis presents Skopos Theory and elaborates on its major points. Next, it discusses movies and movie titles with emphasis on a comparison of movie titles in English with those in Chinese from both linguistic and cultural perspectives. Then, the thesis illustrates the application of Skopos Theory to movie title translation, emphasizing the translator's subjectivity and focusing upon the apt use of the two translation strategies, domestication and foreignization. The thesis argues that the primary strategy should be domestication since the main purpose of movie title translation is to render translated movie titles appealing to target audiences. However, the complementary strategy of foreignization cannot be overlooked, for it does play a crucial role in promoting cultural exchanges between nations. Finally, a detailed study of four cases shows that only those translated movie titles which not only meet the linguistic and aesthetic preferences of the target audience but also conform to the target culture are likely to remain lively and magnetic as time passes by.The author maintains that, as far as movie title translation is concerned, Skopos Theory is superior to traditional translation theories, owing to its capability of providing reasonable explanations for excellently translated film titles which were obviously not handled in accordance with the traditional translation theories.This thesis is intended mainly to prove that the Functionalist Skopos Theory is perfectly applicable to movie title translation and to show that this theory is of constructive significance for translation of movie titles and for criticism of translated movie titles.