A Study On E-C Film Subtitle Translation From Cross-Cultural Perspective

As the multinational cooperation is greatly encouraged, the importance of international cultural communication becomes urgent. The audiovisual product, as a cultural carrier and a major entertainment for the general public, shoulders the significant task in promoting cultural exchange and cultural communication. With the growing popularity of foreign movies and TV series in China, audiovisual translation has drawn attention of more and more translation researchers. On the basis of the results of previous studies, in this paper, the author managed to explore foreign movie subtitle translation strategy by comparing the Sino-US cultural differences, with the main guidance of Newmark’s communicative translation theory, and supplemented by semantic translation and relevance theory.Chapter One describes the background, purpose and significance of the study, as well as thesis structure. Chapter Two describes literature review which details Newmark’s transaction translation method, the concept and features of semantic translation and associated translation. Peter Newmark’s main contribution is his detailed analysis of two translation methods of semantic translation and communicative translation. Semantic translation focuses on the semantic content of the original and communicative translation focuses on the theory and reaction of the readers. Professor Newmark took into account the different variety of original copies, which makes translation more appropriate. Chapter Three discusses the definition of culture and the interaction between culture and language, indicating the importance of studying translation from the perspective of cross-cultural translation. Immediacy, colloquial, prominent film role characteristics and positioning in the audience are the four characteristics of film subtitles. With the example of the movie The Flowers of War, Chapter Four demonstrates the feasibility of the movie subtitle translation strategies based on the analysis of how Newmark’s translation theory applies to film subtitle translations.Combining Newmark’s translation theory with the characteristics of film subtitles translation, the thesis illustrates that the goal of translation is to promote cultural exchanges and mutual understanding, which is significant to establish theoretical framework in this area. And the author summarizes the subtitle translation strategies of The Flowers of War which it base on Cultural Differences, domestic movie subtitle translation practice can benefit from and will further promote cross-culture communication between China and the rest of the world with film exchange as a platform.