A Functionalist Approach To The Subtitle Translation Of Postmen In The Mountains

With the development of cross-cultural communication, audio-visual culture has played a significant role in the cultural exchanges. Nowadays an increasing number of Chinese films and TV plays are introduced in foreign countries. In order to eliminate the obstacles of language and help the audience appreciate the Chinese films well, a number of translators are engaged in the study of film subtitle translation. However, compared with the corresponding study in Europe, the research work in this field in China seems to have lagged behind. Although we have a large number of works on translation theory, film subtitle translation is only mentioned in some of the books. Although related studies occasionally occur in some publications, there is still a long way to go before the establishment of a complete translation theory for subtitle translation. In fact, subtitle translation practice still lacks of an effective guidance of proper theory. In view of this situation, the author attempts to study subtitle translation within the framework of functionalist theory so as to improve the quality of subtitle translation.First, this thesis analyzes the specific constraints and requirements of film subtitle translation, and then, it points out the possibility of applying functionalist theory to guide film subtitle translation. According to the essence of functionalist approach-skopostheorie, subtitle translation, first of all, is a skopos-constrained activity. The skopos of a translation task serves as the prime rule guiding the translation process. Before a translation action, translator should define the skopos. The skopos of film subtitle translation is to deliver, within the constraints of time and space, the most relevant information conveying the director's intention in the most efficient way. In addition, based on translation action theory, subtitle translation is also an interpersonal interaction, in which a number of participants are involved, including the initiator, commissioner, translator, source-text producer, target-text receiver and target-text user. During the subtitle translation process, film director plays the role of commissioner whose intention may determine the strategies of subtitle translation. Furthermore, in terms of Reiss's text typology, subtitle translation is also a text-processing action, during which the source text analysis and the comparison between source and target text should be addressed so as to achieve the skopos. Text types are classified according to the dominant communicative function as informative text, expressive text and operative text. However, Newmark points out "few texts are purely expressive, informative or vocative: most include all three functions, with an emphasis on one of the three." (qtd. in Jia Wenbo, 2004:57) Therefore, according to text typology theory, we can learn that as a kind of audio-visual text, subtitles are the complex with informative text, expressive text and operative text, different texts need different translation strategies.This thesis adopts Huo Jianqi's Postmen in the Mountains as case study, from the perspective of functionalist approach to analyze the strategies used in the subtitle translation. Huo Jianqi intends to shoot films that reflect common people's life. He also attempts to squeeze into international film market so as to push the sale of Chinese movies and advocate Chinese life style, which reveals the director's intention-skopos in translation. Following this, the subtitle translator has adopted related translation strategies, such as literal translation, free translation, domestication, condensation, merging, omission as well as implicit information to explicit information to guarantee the fulfillment of skopos and to keep the legibility and connectivity of subtitles.