A Study On E-C Translation Of Film Titles From The Perspective Of Translation Memetics

Film, as a modern art, is influencing people’s life dramatically. With the implementation of reform and opening up policy, many foreign films are introduced to Chinese audiences. These imported films not only enrich the lifestyle of Chinese audiences, but also intensify the cultural communication between China and the rest of the world. Although many scholars have made contribution to the study of audio-visual translation, researches on film title translation are still in short, and practical translation theory that can be applied to guide film title translation has not formed yet.Memetics is a relatively new theory proposed to explain the law of cultural evolution after Darwin’s Evolution Theory. The core concept of Memetics is meme which was put forward by Dawkins to mean cultural gene in cultural evolution. Anything that can be transmitted or replicated among people is a meme, whether it is a word or a habit. Meme transmission usually covers four stages, namely assimilation, retention, expression and transmission. After the proposal of Memetics, many scholars try to apply it to their research fields, among which the Finnish scholar, Chesterman, put forward the theory of Translation Memetics. He regards translation studies as a branch of Memetics and thinks that a meme needs a translation if it wants to be transmitted verbally across cultures. Based on this, he proposes three core concepts for Translation Memetics, namely norm memes, value memes and strategy memes. These concepts are not independent from each other but interactively related:norm memes are governed by value memes while strategy memes are adopted to confirm to norm memes.The process of translating foreign film titles into Chinese is actually the process of meme replication and transmission. In this case, Translation Memetics provides a new perspective for E-C translation of film titles. With the guidance of the theory, this thesis tries to discuss the following questions:what is the interactive relationship between film titles and memes? What kind of norm memes do E-C translation of film titles comply with and what are the value memes in E-C translation of film titles? What kind of strategies can be adopted in creating normative film title memes in the process of E-C translation from the perspective of Translation Memetics? With methods of quantitative analysis, comparative analysis and textual analysis, this thesis is divided into six parts to solve these problems.Chapter one is the introduction part, including research background, research significance, research questions, research methodology and data collection. Chapter two is literature review, in which the profile of film titles is analyzed and a domestic review on film title translation is made.Chapter three describes the theory applied in this thesis—Translation Memetics, including a brief introduction to Memetics, relationship between meme transmission and translation, and explanation of some core concepts of Translation Memetics.Chapter four and Chapter five are the main parts of the research. In Chapter four, an interactive relationship between film titles and memes is stated in the first place. Then on the basis of norm memes and value memes, some textual, quantitative and comparative analysis is made on E-C translation of film titles. Chapter five proposes some strategies for E-C translation of film titles in terms of strategy memes of Translation Memetics. Strategies can be categorized into three levels:syntactic (grammatical) level, semantic level and pragmatic level. Translators should take many elements into consideration in choosing translation strategies, including film contents, cultural differences, potential audiences, and so on.Chapter six is the conclusion part. It concludes major research findings and limitations of the research and proposes some suggestions for further study.After the tentative study of E-C translation of film titles from a translation memetic perspective, it can be concluded that Translation Memetics have a practical significance in instructing E-C translation of film titles and that this thesis could help with the scientific and systematic study of film title translation.