A Study Of Intertextuality In Game Of Thrones' Subtitle Translation

With the boost of communication between western countries and China,a great deal of American TV dramas are swarming into China,among which TV series Game of Thrones(GoT)has attracted many audiences in China since it was broadcast in 2011.The reason why this TV series could be so popular in China to a large degree is that comparatively high quality subtitle translation could help Chinese audiences understand plots very well.Being different from other textual translation,subtitle translation is constrained by time and space.Considering the characteristics of subtitle translation,qualitative and quantitative analysis are adopted in this study,Fairclough's classification of intertextuality is employed to analyze intertextual references in GoT's subtitle totally,Hatim and Mason's intertextuality theory is applied to translate intertextual references and four translation approaches including creating,retaining,reducing and replacing intertextual space are discussed in detail.By analyzing all types of intertextuality aided by self-established parallel corpus,it has been found that three types of manifest intertextuality are of high frequency in subtitle and parody occupies a large percentage because this TV series is a fantasy TV series and its plots are based on the European history in Middle Ages.Therefore,many things or culture in TV series have relationships with real history,while these things or culture are of their own features.Meanwhile,there are two kinds of typical constitutive intertextuality involving generic intertextuality and rhetorical intertextuality.Finally,as for four translation approaches employed to translate intertextual references,creating intertextual space obtains the highest frequency in order to make subtitle translation comprehended easily by Chinese audiences.The second highest frequency of approach is retaining intertextual space,showing that translators prefer to keep the connotations of English culture so as to attract Chinese audiences' interests for English culture.It is hoped that this study will help Chinese audiences comprehend subtitles well and provide some suggestions and guidance for translators in the process of subtitle translation.