Abstract:With foreign movies flooding in to China, most of which are English, cultural communication has been given greater attention.This is a great phenomenon for culture exchange. Though most of the audience are young people who have knowledge of English to some extent, most of them still are not capable of watching the movie without looking at subtitles. Subtitle translation thus is gaining more and more notice. In the subtitle translation area, European countries started early and has already established a comparatively systematical theory, compared with which the research in China is still in confusion.

This thesis mainly analyzes subtitle translation with a case of the Disney movie Mulan in light of the Skopos theory, which regards that there are three principles for subtitle translation, as the skopos rule, the coherence rulr and the fidelity rule. Besides, it also says that any translation has its purpose and purpose defines the method. The author analyses the skopos of Mulan from three aspects: intention of the director, expectation of the target audience and film type, then discusses the translation methods adopted and whether they apply with the Skopos theory.

Key words: subtitle translation, Skopos theory, Mulan, translation strategy

CONTENTS

摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction1

  1.1 Research background

  1.2 Thesis structure

2. Literature Review.. 2

2.1 Subtitle 

    2.1.1 Definition of subtitle

    2.1.2 Characteristics of subtitle 

    2.1.3 Function of subtitle

    2.1.4 Constrains of subtitle

  2.2 Studies on subtitle translation

    2.2.1 Studies abroad 

    2.2.2 Studies at home

3. Theoretical Background.. 5

3.1 Overview of Skopos Theory

3.2 Three Rules of Skopos Theory

    3.2.1 The Skopos Rule

3.2.2 The Coherence Rule

3.2.3 The Fidelity Rule

4. An Analysis of Subtitle Translation of Mulan  7

  4.1 An introduction to Mulan

    4.1.1Plot 

    4.1.2Character

  4.2 Factors influencing the subtitle translation of Mulan

    4.2.1The type of film

    4.2.2The purpose of director

    4.2.3The expectation of audience

  4.3 An analysis of the subtitle translation strategies in light of Skopostheorie

    4.3.1Domestication

  4.3.2Foreignization

5. Conclusion13

  5.1 Overview and limitations

  5.2 Suggestions for further studies

Bibliography.14

Acknowledgements..14