Probe Into Strategies Of Subtitling Translation Under Critical Discourse Analysis

Film subtitling translation attracts increasingly more attention with the rapiddevelopment of this emerging new industry. Systematical research on subtitlingtranslation theory and strategy in Europe started much earlier than that in China due toits advanced film technology. This thesis plans to analyze the strategies of filmsubtitling translation under critical discourse analysis (CDA) for the purpose ofproviding a new angle for the research on the fusion of film subtitling translationtheory and practice.The theory of CDA was put forward in the late20thcentury which is a newdiscipline of discourse analysis. With the purpose of revealing the power relations andsocial ideology behind the language, this theory and analytical methods are in linewith the present trend of translation studies.From the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), taking Fairclough’sthree-dimensional model as analytical tool, this thesis probes into the material ofsubtitles of the film The Flowers of War, intending to find out the hidden powerrelationship and social ideologies. They can be analyzed from t culture, politics andreligion, class, gender, identity and education background of roles in the movie.Furthermore, through comparing the subtitles of C-E and E-C in the database, weshall find out that the translator has chosen four translation strategies, that is,rewriting, deduction, domestication and addition, and the factors influencing theselection of specific translation strategy are also specifically presented.The following findings are found through the analysis. In the first place, powerrelation and ideology are permeated in all aspects of the film. From the macro point ofview, power relation and ideology include politics, economy and culture, whilehierarchical relations, power relations and identities between people are discussedfrom the micro point of view. In addition, power relation and social ideology can manipulate the characters’ communicative activities—discourse; the discourse in turnreflects power relations and social ideology. Finally, characters’ discourse impactedby power relations and different ideologies is reflected at natural language level,which will naturally affect the translation strategies. With the help of appropriatetranslation strategies, power relations and hidden ideology in keeping pace withcharacters’ identities are restored. Finally, the translated text product is formed. Theresearch shows that the construction of discourse is affected by many factors, however,in subtitling translation the cultural factor is the top one influencing the selection oftranslation strategy. Furthermore, literal translation is most often applied to subtitlingtranslation, rewriting and deduction in the second place. And in terms of culturalfactor, domestication is adopted most frequently in order to cater the acceptability oftarget audienceTo study subtitling translation strategies from the perspective of CriticalDiscourse Analysis is just a new attempt, many difficulties in data collection,reference materials have been encountered. All leads to the lack of comprehensive orin-depth research in the thesis. Much deeper ideology and corresponding translationstrategies are expected to be dug out so as to effectively guide subtitling translationpractice in the future research.