Abstract

The film industry has been developing in recent years, so has the subtitle translation. An increasing number of Chinese films have been introduced onto the global market in hope of shining on a bigger stage. Accordingly, it brings a prosperous time for subtitle translation. Many domestic films have added English subtitles behind the Chinese for exporting overseas. The particularity and limitation of subtitles demand this type of translation to focus on the information reception of the audience. The research and theory of subtitle translation have not been mature, nor has a scientific arrangement of subtitle translation as a discipline. A great majority of current subtitle translation is more like literal translation which focuses on the Chinese text, lacking connection with the audience. It becomes hard for foreigners to understand the film through the text-centered translation. 

This thesis tries to find suitable translation strategies under the guidance of Reception Theory with an analysis of The Grandmaster, a 2013 released kongfu martial art film. The Reception Theory first showed up in the last 1960s, the opinion of which was to shift the literary research from text-centered to readers-centered. The theory has great applicable value to the subtitle translation research for that the completion of effective subtitles depends on the final understanding of the audience. There are a lot of examples in the The Grandmaster, carrying Chinese-styled expressions which could serve as good sources of research. By analyzing these examples, the author intends to find some effective translation strategies in order to give referential significance to the improvement of subtitle translation study in China.

Key words: subtitle translation, The Grandmaster, reception theory

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter One   Introduction-1

1.1-Research Background-1

1.2 Research Objective-2

1.3 Thesis Structure-2

Chapter Two    Literature Review-3

2.1-Chinese-to-English Subtitle Translation-3

2.2-Subtitle Translation Based on Reception Theory-4

2.3 Subtitle Translation of The Grandmaster Studied from Different Angles-6

Chapter Three    Theoretical Framework-8

3.1The Emergence of Reception Theory-8

3.2 Main Ideas of Reception Theory-9

3.2.1 Jauss and His “Horizon of Expectation”-10

3.2.2 Iser and His “Indeterminacy”-11

Chapter Four    Subtitle Translation of The Grandmaster: A Case Study-14

4.1 An Introduction to The Grandmaster-14

4.1.1 About The grandmaster-14

4.1.2 Linda Jaivin, the Translator,-15

4.2 Translation Strategies under Reception Theory-16

4.2.1 Horizon of Expectation-16

4.2.2 Indeterminacy-20

Chapter Five   Conclusion-24

5.1 Major Findings of the Study-24

5.2 Suggestions for the Development of Chinese-to-English Subtitle Translation-24

5.3 Limitation-25

References-26

文献综述报告-28