"Faithfulness, Expressiveness And Elegance" In Subtitle Translation Of Movies And TV Series

The present thesis adopts the modified translation theory of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" as the theoretical basis to subtitle translation of movies and TV series. It analyzes the particularities of subtitle translation and above all, explores the unique characteristics and requirements of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" in subtitle translation.As a major type of movie translation, subtitle translation is still a field that remains largely unexplored in China. Although with the enormous influence of English or American films and TV series, and with people's growing interest in foreign cultures, many Chinese scholars have turned their attention to audiovisual translation, a comprehensive and systematic theoretical framework is still not established yet. Further and deeper studies and explorations are needed.The author tries to approach subtitle translation from a new perspective-the theory of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance", which is based on the logic that as a branch of literary translation, subtitle translation should also follow the principle of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance"-the "golden rule" guiding the translation of literary works. But with the uniqueness of film-TV art, "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" in subtitle translation have their unique features and special requirements, which is the focus of this paper.The thesis consists of three chapters, with distinct layers and prominent emphasis. Chapter one reviews the renowned scholar Yan Fu's thought on "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance", and introduces its proposal and original meanings, as well as other scholars'comments and development of this theory. The focus of this chapter is on the modified principle of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" in a modern sense. It presents the connotation of and relationship among the three elements, and explains the reasons why the author has chosen this theory to account for subtitle translation. Chapter two concentrates on the particularities of subtitle translation and the corresponding strategies. Three characteristics are summarized, i.e. constraint of time and space, popularity and comprehensiveness. These features determine that the principles of conciseness, popularity and clarity become the guidelines. In order to achieve the above principles, strategies of reduction, of colloquialism and the transmission of cultural information are adopted. The first two chapters make a basis for the third part, also the emphasis of the thesis, i.e. the unique features and special requirements of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" in subtitle translation of movies and TV series, which can be summarized into the following aspects:In order to achieve "faithfulness" in subtitle translation, firstly, the subtitle translator should make sure that the subtitles are faithful to the general content and comprehensive effect of the lines instead of focusing on single words or phrases. Secondly, the translator should take the constraint of context on the word meaning of subtitles into consideration. What's more, the translator should make a smooth transmission of cultural factors in the films. Last but not least, the translator ought to explicitly express the implied meanings of dialogue and non-verbal film language.Due to the entertaining nature of films or TV series and the characteristics of subtitle translation, "expressiveness" is regarded as the most important aspect in the principle of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance." Therefore, the subtitle translator should pay more attention to the standard, distinct, logical and flowing expression of language during the translation process. However, the emphasis on "expressiveness" does not mean the ignorance of "faithfulness" or "elegance". Actually, the three aspects is a unified whole and any element of them is the basis of the other two. Only when the three aspects are united systematically can the translated version catch the exact and complete essence of the original text."Elegance" is the highest requirement in movie/TV subtitle translation. It focuses on the smooth delivery of style of the original film and also on the literary grace of the subtitle translation. For the delivery of style, the author chose two breakthrough points, namely, learning the major types of movies and their features, and grasping the language styles of different characters on screen. As for literary grace, language polishing and keeping the original rhetoric flavor are two important methods to make the language refined and impressive.Last but not least, the thesis is accompanied by abundant and well-chosen examples from the well-known American TV drama Desperate Housewives season one. These examples can help make the theories in this paper more vivid, interesting and easier to understand.