On Translating English Film Titles-from The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

The film, the popular art with both artistic and commercial values, is one of the most charming and influential mass media. As the development of globalization, more and more excellent foreign films are introduced into the Chinese market. And the film translation is becoming more and more important. The film title, as an important part of the film, is of informative, expressive and vocative function. A translated film title plays a very important role when the film is introduced to a foreign market. In the past two or three decades, film translation is an area that is far from being explored. Few monographs at home and abroad have discussed this topic. In the foreign language master journals published in the past decade, it is noticed that there is a relative paucity of theoretical writing on film title translation.English film title translation is a challenging job. Up till now, no systematic theory on it has been put forward. This thesis discusses this topic from the perspective of Skopostheorie. The author proposes that the skopos of film title translation is to call upon audience to see the film. Through proper examples, the author details on the consideration translators need to fully realize the four values, namely cultural, informative, aesthetic and commercial values. The thesis also presents a detailed analysis of the unique features of different versions in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively and the potential reasons. The translated film titles serve local people. As long as the versions can meet local people's aesthetic and emotional needs, disunity of versions in the three regions should be kept.This thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 is about the introduction, including the topic and significance of the research, theoretical framework, research goals, research methodology and the structures of this thesis. Chapter 2 gives a general introduction to the film and film titles, including film genres, the naming methods, features, functions and positions of English film titles. Chapter 3 lays the theoretical framework for the whole thesis. Skopostheorie and the theory of action are being emphasized . The author proposes that the skopos of film title translations is to call upon audience to appreciate films and all the methods and strategies serve this skopos. Chapter 4 is about putting theories into practice. It is proceeded from the realization of cultural, informative, aesthetic and commercial values. Chapter 5 is the comparison of film title versions in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The potential reasons are proposed as well. The last chapter is the conclusion, giving the summary of the whole thesis.The translated versions should not only be faithful to the original, but also cater to their aesthetic taste of the target language spectators and satisfy their psychological needs. They should have both cultural savor and good commercial appeal. The factors of time, place and audience should be taken into consideration. Besides, this thesis suggests that with the ever-growing communication and exchanges among the three regions, translators across the Straits should learn and benefit from each other so that more excellent versions of film titles could be offered to audience in the three regions.