Abstract

With the development of technology and economy, exchanges between different cultures have become more and more frequent. Films have become a common way of cultural communication. In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese style films have been famous in the whole world and have won many international awards. The importance of audiovisual translation cannot be ignored. Good translations not only retain the essence of Chinese culture, but also help foreign audiences understand better. Audiovisual translation is a new branch of translation and it has developed fast,   however, compared with other translation such as literary translation, studies of audiovisual translation are far from enough, no matter in number or in quality. This situation does not fit the fact that films have been so popular at present. This lack will limit the development of the film ultimately. Film translation needs more of people’s attention.

Of the two forms of film translation, subtitling and dubbing, the former one makes a deeper linguistic impression on audiences. Because of space, time and other limitations, it is difficult to make good subtitle translations. In view of this situation, the author analyzes the subtitle translation of the film Red Chiff with Lawrence Venuti’s theory of domestication and foreignization in order to find how these two strategies use in subtitle translation. The disputes on these two strategies have existed for hundreds of years. Although Lawrence Venuti proposed these two concepts, he preferred foreignization. The thesis analyses the subtitle translation with seven different methods of translation related to domestication and foreignization, liberal translation, condensation, deletion, substitution, literal translation, transliteration and addition, and finds some representative examples. Finally the author draws the conclusion through analysing that both of these two strategies have advantages and limitations and translators should combine domestication with foreignization when doing translation. Only using one of them is inadvisable.

Key words: domestication, foreignization, subtitle translation, Red Cliff

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter One    Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Research Aim-2

1.3 Thesis Structure-2

Chapter Two    Literature Review-3

2.1Audiovisual translation-3

2.2 An Introduction of Subtitle Translation-3

2.2.1 Definition of Subtitle Translation-3

2.2.2 Advantages of Subtitle Translation-3

2.2.3 Limitations of Subtitle Translation-4

2.3 Previous Studies on Subtitle Translation-4

Chapter Three    Theoretical Framework-7

3.1 Definition of Domestication and Foreignization-7

3.2 Contrast between Domestication and Foreignizaiton-7

3.3 Specific Methods Used in Domestication-8

3.4 Specific Methods Used in Foreignization-9

Chapter Four    Domestication in Subtitle Translation of Red Cliff-10

4.1 An Introduction to Red Cliff-10

4.2 The Employment of Domestication-10

4.2.1 Literal Translation-10

4.2.2 Deletion-12

4.2.3 Condensation-12

4.2.4 Substitution-13

Chapter Five    Foreignizaiton in Subtitle Translation of Red Chiff-15

5.1 The Employment of Foreignizaiton-15

5.1.1 Literal Translation-15

5.1.2 Transliteration-16

5.1.3 Addition-16

Chapter Six    Conclusion-18

5.1 Major Findings of the Study-18

5.2 Limitations of the Study-18

References-19

文献综述报告-21