Difference between revisions of "Cult Turn EN 2"

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Jiang Qiuxia 姜秋霞(2009).文学翻译与社会文化的相互作用关系研究 A Study on the Interaction Between Literary Translation and Social Culture[M].北京: 外语教育与研究出版社 Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
  
Liu Xiaohui, Zhang Liang 刘晓辉,张亮.影视剧字幕翻译及跨文化传播——以美版《甄嬛传》为例 Subtitle Translation and Cross-cultural Communication of Film and Television Dramas -- Taking the American version of Empresses in the Palaceas an Example[J].出版广角 View on Publishing,2017(06):64-66.
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Liu Xiaohui, Zhang Liang 刘晓辉,张亮(2017).影视剧字幕翻译及跨文化传播——以美版《甄嬛传》为例 Subtitle Translation and Cross-cultural Communication of Film and Television Dramas -- Taking the American version of Empresses in the Palaceas an Example[J].出版广角 View on Publishing,6:64-66.
  
Munday, Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and applications [M]. London: Routledge, 2001.
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Munday, Jeremy(2001). Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and applications [M]. London: Routledge.
  
Sun Zhili 孙致礼.中国文学翻译:从归化趋向异化 Chinese Literary Translation: from Domestication to Foreignization[J].中国翻译 Chinese Translation,2002(1).  
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Sun Zhili 孙致礼(2002).中国文学翻译:从归化趋向异化 Chinese Literary Translation: from Domestication to Foreignization[J].中国翻译 Chinese Translation,1.  
  
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Wang Sisi 王思思.从文化转向看中国文化在电影字幕中的翻译 On the Translation of Chinese Culture in Film Subtitles from the Perspective of Cultural Turn[J].山西师大学报(社会科学版) Journal of Shanxi Normal University(Social Science Edition),2014,41(S1):107-109.
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Wang Sisi 王思思(2014).从文化转向看中国文化在电影字幕中的翻译 On the Translation of Chinese Culture in Film Subtitles from the Perspective of Cultural Turn[J].山西师大学报(社会科学版) Journal of Shanxi Normal University(Social Science Edition),41(S1):107-109.
  
Wang Ning 王宁.翻译研究的文化转向Cultural Turn in Translation Studies[M].北京:清华大学出版社 Tsinghua University Press,2009
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Wang Ning 王宁(2009).翻译研究的文化转向Cultural Turn in Translation Studies[M].北京:清华大学出版社 Tsinghua University Press.
  
Zhou Tiantian 周甜甜.纽马克翻译理论视角下美版《甄嬛传》的字幕翻译浅析 On the Subtitle Translation of the American Version of Empresses in the Palaceas from the Perspective of Newmark's Translation Theory[J].今古文创 Modern and Ancient Cultural Creation,2020(42):76-77.
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Zhou Tiantian 周甜甜(2020).纽马克翻译理论视角下美版《甄嬛传》的字幕翻译浅析 On the Subtitle Translation of the American Version of Empresses in the Palaceas from the Perspective of Newmark's Translation Theory[J].今古文创 Modern and Ancient Cultural Creation,42:76-77.
  
Zhang Jing, Li Shuliang张静, 李树春.“文化转向”及其在翻译中的重要性"Cultural Turn" and Its Importance in Translation[J] . 沧州师范专科学校学报Journal of Cangzhou Teachers'College, 2006, (4).
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Zhang Jing, Li Shuliang张静, 李树春(2006).“文化转向”及其在翻译中的重要性"Cultural Turn" and Its Importance in Translation[J] . 沧州师范专科学校学报Journal of Cangzhou Teachers'College,4.
  
 
Written by --[[User:Li Aixuan|Li Aixuan]] ([[User talk:Li Aixuan|talk]]) 12:39, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
 
Written by --[[User:Li Aixuan|Li Aixuan]] ([[User talk:Li Aixuan|talk]]) 12:39, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Revision as of 15:30, 13 December 2021

The Cultural Turn

Overview Page of The Cultural Turn

Chapter2 Cultural Turn in Film and Television Subtitle Translation:a Case Study of Empresses in the Palace

影视翻译中的文化转向:以《甄嬛传》为例

李爱璇 Li Aixuan, Hunan Normal University, China

Abstract

The Culture Turn is a term in the field of translation studies which means that translation studies should not only focus on language, but also carry out their own discussion in a broader historical and cultural perspective. Film and television have always played an important role in the communication and exchange of national cultures. The audiovisual subtitle translation even plays a more critical role. In the previous studies, there are a few studies on subtitle translation strategies, but few scholars explore Empresses in the Palace, a classic Chinese TV drama, from the perspective of Cultural Turn. (斜体《甄嬛传》英译名, Corrected by --Li Wenxuan (talk) 12:32, 13 December 2021 (UTC)) In this thesis, the author aims to do some research on the translation strategies in audiovisual subtitle translation based on “Cultural Turn”, in order to explore how cultural turn affects audiovisual subtitle translation, and provide a new perspective for later scholars or subtitle translators.

Key Words

Culture Turn; subtitle translation; Empresses in the Palace; translation strategy

摘要

文化转向是翻译研究领域的一个术语,它意味着翻译研究不仅应该关注语言,而且应该从更广阔的历史和文化视角进行探讨。影视在民族文化的传播和交流中一直发挥着重要作用。影视字幕翻译甚至起着更为关键的作用。在以往的研究中,关于字幕翻译策略的研究并不少,但很少有学者从文化转向的角度来探讨中国经典电视剧《甄嬛传》。本文旨在研究基于“文化转向”的影视字幕翻译中的翻译策略,以探讨文化转向对影视字幕翻译的影响,并为后来的学者或字幕译者提供一个新的视角。

关键词

文化转向;字幕翻译;《甄嬛传》;翻译策略

Title

Cultural Turn in Film and Television Subtitle Translation:a Case Study of Empresses in the Palace

Introduction

Backgroud of the Study

Throughout the translation studies in the 20th century, there are many schools. Each school competes with and affects each other one after another, which makes translation studies flourish in recent decades and establish its status as an independent discipline. As the publication of Translation, History and Cultural written by Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere, Culture Turn appeared in people's vision in 1990. The translation view of Cultural Turn has brought a new vision and breakthrough to the translation studies, which has been bound by linguistics for a long time.(Lefevere 2001:70)

Significance and Objectives of the Study

As an effective mass media in the context of globalization, film and television works, with their unique artistic charm and rich cultural carrier, have promoted the cultural communication and exchange between various countries and cultures, and become a powerful tool to strengthen their own cultural characteristics and cross-cultural communication. With the deepening of cultural exchanges among countries, the study of subtitle translation of film and television works has increasingly highlighted its important significance of the times. In this context of cultural output, how to integrate Chinese culture into the external translation of film and television works has become an important aspect of cultural communication. Cultural differences lead to different understanding of culture, so there are higher requirements for the translation of works. The emergence of “cultural turn” has brought a new wind to the translation circle, provided new ideas for the development of translation methods, and provided a new research field to the translation circle.(Lefevere 2001:70)

Study Methods

This paper takes the subtitles of the famous Chinese costume drama Empresses in the Palace as the research object, and focuses on its translation strategies under the background of “Cultural Turn”. This paper will use the method of theoretical analysis. Based on the widely accepted English version as the corpus source, this paper explores the effect of the English version according to the theory of Domestication and Foreignization and the translation strategies of semantic translation and communicative translation.(Lefevere 2001:70)

Literature Review

On Culture Turn

In the 1950s and 1960s, the linguistic view of translation dominated translation studies, and translation was regarded as the transformation between different languages. Those scholars try to use linguistic theories (such as semantics, semiotics, pragmatics, etc.) to construct the discipline theory of translation studies. Their representatives are Jakobson, Catford, Nida and Newmark. However, this linguistic view of translation cannot solve the social, cultural, and historical problems well encountered in translation, and translation is affected by the differences of different cultures in ways of thinking and emotional expression. (Zhang Jing Li Shuchun 2006:83)

Since the 1960s, some scholars in Europe, especially in Britain, have successively published some articles and Monographs on studying the class system and reexamining the cultural connotation, which marks the rise of culturology. In the 1970s, scholars represented by Even-Zohar put forward the polysystem theory. This school believes that "literary works are an integral part of the overall framework of society, culture, literature and history" and "the isolated research of a single text is placed in the multi system of culture and literature". (Munday 2001:109;111)

This view has broken through the traditional view of linguistic translation and can be regarded as the bud of cultural turn, although it still does not completely get rid of the shackles of linguistics. Later, Lambert and robyns thought that translation was "less as an interactive process and more as an internal activity". (Gentzler 1993:186)

Later, the academic conference held in Belgium marked the establishment of translation as an independent discipline. Bassnett and Lefevere inherited and developed the polysystem theory and formally put forward the “cultural turn” in translation studies in their book Translation, History, and Culture in 1990. The Cultural School of translation breaks through the linguistic school, which focuses on the comparison and transformation between different languages, and connects translation with society, history, and culture. The “cultural turn” of the cultural school turns the paradigm of translation studies from the pure language level to the translation activities that explore the interaction and restriction of cultural level and various factors, outlines the framework of translation studies, and provides a new research paradigm for translation studies. The cultural turn in translation studies is neither a theory nor a school, but an ideological trend. It refers to the gradual shift from translation studies to cultural studies, that is, to study how culture affects and manipulates the translator, the translation process, and the translated text, and how translation affects the target language culture.(Lefevere 2001:130)

On Audiovisual Subtitle Translation

The rendering in a different language of verbal message in film media, in the shape of one or more lines of written text, presented on the screen in sync with the original verbal message. (cited in orero 2004:86). Firstly, from the perspective of linguistics, subtitle translation can be divided into intralingual subtitles and interlingual subtitles. The former is mainly responsible for transforming discourse into text. At this time, the language itself has not changed. From the perspective of time, subtitles can be divided into pre-prepared subtitles and live or real time subtitles. Interlingual subtitle translation is the process of translating the source language into the target language while retaining the original sound, and synchronously displaying the target language at the bottom of the screen or picture. The audience can not only feast their eyes on foreign works, but also get as much subtitle information as possible. What we usually call subtitle translation is interlingual subtitle translation. The characteristics of audio-visual language lie in its listening, comprehensiveness, instantaneity, popularity, and non-attention. (Wang 2014:107)

The foreign films introduced in China in the early stage are generally translated by the professional film and television translation department of TV stations or film studios. This translation model has many disadvantages, such as too pursuing commercial value, ignoring artistry and the cultural communication function of subtitles. Today, with the development of network technology, the monopoly of subtitle translation by professional film and television translation departments has been broken, and a large number of voluntary film and television subtitle translation teams have emerged, commonly known as online subtitle groups. In just a few hours after broadcasting abroad, the subtitle group can release subtitles in China, which undoubtedly meets the audience's timeliness needs for film and television works. But at the same time, it should be noted that there are still some problems in the online subtitle group, such as the proliferation of online words, excessive translation cavity, excessive pursuit of translation speed, fuzzy translation standards and so on.(Wang 2014:107)

Theoritical Foundation

“Translation strategy” is “on the macro level, it mostly refers to the overall assumption, main ways and cultural attitude of conveying the content and form of the original work, such as domestication and alienation; on the micro level, it refers to specific transformation methods or skills, such as substitution, addition, ellipsis, word by word translation, literal translation and annotation, transliteration, as well as sub translation and combined translation. The macro strategy mainly reflects the culture of translation Value orientation; specific methods and techniques are extensive, including both the means of transforming cultural information and the language transformation methods of non-cultural information.” Peter Newmark, a British translation theorist, is a famous and important figure in the field of translation. He deeply studies the translation thoughts and theories of various schools, has his own unique views on translation, and his discussion on translation theory is incisive and unique. semantic translation and communicative translation are not only the core of Newmark's translation theory, but also the most important part of Newmark’s translation theory.(Jiang 2009:180)

Semantic translation refers to expressing the overall meaning of the original text as accurately as possible within the scope allowed by the semantics and language structure of the target language. Semantic translation is more considered by the original author, trying to ensure that the original author’s unique language expression will not be changed. Semantic translation strives to be accurate and objective, and pays attention to the original author and source language. Therefore, in the process of semantic translation, the text will be interpreted only when there is an objection to the understanding of the original text. However, semantic translation will not ignore readers’reading feelings and understand that the main purpose of the translation is to convey information to readers. Although semantic translation is closer to the language form of the source language, it will still strive to make the translation closer to the reader. Therefore, semantic translation pays more attention to reproducing the thinking process of the original author’s writing.(Zhou 2020:76)

While communicative translation pays more attention to language effect, and strives to make the language effect of the target language on the target readers equal to that of the source language on the original readers as far as possible. Compared with semantic translation, communicative translation is more subjective. Because communicative translation pays more attention to the transmission of language information and the production of language effect, it only pays attention to the reading feeling of the target readers. Communicative translation strives not to cause any reading obstacles and questions to the target readers. Therefore, the translator can also modify the source text appropriately when considering the target language environment and respecting the source text.(Zhou 2020:76)

The domestication“requires the translator to approach the target language readers and adopt the target language expression used by the target language readers to convey the content of the original text.” Sun Zhili believes that the domestication is mainly manifested at the pure language level and can be used as a compromise means to solve the language barrier. However, in translation, language can be transformed or even domesticated, but cultural characteristics should not be changed. If it is not a last resort, it is particularly inappropriate to domesticate, but to convey it as much as possible. Excessive domestication may not play the role of translation in disseminating foreign cultures and customs.(Sun 2003:34)

Compared with the domestication, the foreignization translation method “requires the translator to approach the author and adopt the source language expression corresponding to the author to convey the content of the original text.” Therefore, Sun Zhili pointed out that the core of the foreignization is to convey the “heterogeneous factors” of the original text as much as possible, is to try to convey the exotic cultural characteristics, foreign language forms and the author's abnormal writing techniques of the original work.(Sun 2003:40)

Translation Strategies used in the Subtitle Translation of Empresses in the Palace

Domestication and Foreignization

Subtitle translation of film and television plays is a balanced art, which accurately and appropriately conveys the wonderful plot and language and cultural information to the target audience, so that the audience can obtain the aesthetic experience, but also avoid the obstacles and deficiencies of cultural exchange. The translation of Empresses in the Palace, which has attracted much attention and many difficulties, should achieve a perfect balance between the huge language and cultural differences between China and the United States, and should also combine the two translation strategies of "domestication" and "alienation". Domestication is to use the expression and cultural image of the target language to convey the original meaning and respect the language habits of the target language audience. Foreignization is to use the expression and cultural image of the source language to convey the content of the original text and highlight the “exotic style” of the source language in the translation. (Liu 2017:67)

In the subtitle translation of Empresses in the Palace, the translation strategy of "domestication" is adopted for the cultural factors that are difficult to convert, so as to avoid the obstacles to understanding caused by the translation. For the cultural factors with unique national characteristics that can be transformed, the “alienation” translation strategy can be adopted. It is worth noting that excessive foreignization translation will make the audience of film and television dramas feel obscure and difficult to understand due to the intervention of many foreign cultures, and finally lose their interest in watching. Although excessive domestication translation makes the translation easy to understand, it will lose the text characteristics and exotic flavor of the source language, and make the target audience lose the opportunity and fun to understand foreign culture. For example, the translation of Chinese network catchwords in British costume dramas, or the street speaking of the United States in Chinese court dramas, will destroy the harmonious beauty of the original film and television works.(Liu 2017:67)


In view of the large number of cultural images rich in cultural connotation in Empresses in the Palace, the proper use of foreignization translation can maintain the cultural connotation and artistic characteristics of the original film and television works.

SL: 袅楚宫腰

TL: the slim waist of the containers of the Chu Palace

For example, the protagonist’s name “Huan Huan” is interpreted to “袅楚宫腰” which is translated into “the slim waist of the containers of the Chu Palace” in the American version. The cultural background of the state of Chu is added here, which reflects the profound cultural connotation of its name and the hero's love for the heroine. However, it may be slightly obscure for the audience of American TV dramas who do not understand the ancient cultural history of China. (Liu 2017:67)

SL:一片冰心在玉壶

TL: a jade vessel is the symbol of a pure heart.

In the play, Wen Shichu quoted this ancient poems to express his confession to Zhen Huan. This interpretative translation explains the symbolic meaning of ice heart and jade vessel, which makes the target audience understand easily. This two translation strategies can achieve effective combination and appropriate re-creation of the source language content, and is good for transforming cultural images, making up for cultural gaps and achieving the purpose of cultural transmission. (Liu 2017:67)

The focus of foreignization translation strategy coincides with the cultural turn to examine translation from a cultural perspective. Through foreignization translation, the translator can try to convey the source language culture to the target language readers, to retain the different cultural characteristics of the source language. Instead of just considering the acceptability and cultural context of the target language readers in order to better achieve the smoothness of the translation. Finally, readers can also examine the gains and losses of the translation by feeling the culture in the original, and gain a new understanding of the culture of other countries to a certain extent. (Liu 2017:67)

The reason why we gradually tend to foreignization translation strategy in the continuous practice of domestication and foreignization is that under the influence of the tension of foreignization translation method, we deeply feel the cultural interaction brought by foreignization translation in the current era of cultural diversity brought about by globalization, and retain and consolidate their own cultural characteristics through foreignization translation, It has also promoted global cultural exchanges. Nevertheless, in the specific translation practice, when facing the choice of translation strategies, it should still be measured and balance the harmony between domestication and foreignization. No translation method can be viewed in isolation, and domestication must also be properly considered when viewing alienation. There is neither complete domestication nor complete alienation. In translation practice, the assistance and cooperation of domestication and foreignization should be considered. Only in this way can there be no farfetched and unreasonable translation in some places. Therefore, properly incorporated domestication translation method can make the translation more in line with the reading habits of target language readers and more acceptable to them.(Liu 2017:67)

Semantic Translation and Communicative Translation

SL:那就赏夏常在一丈红吧。

TL:Then I will award Attendant Xia the Scarlet Red.

In Empresses in the Palace, this sentence was said by imperial concubine Hua, which meant that Xia Changzai, a women in the emperor's harem who violated the palace rules, would be punished in the palace. It was to take a two inch thick and five foot long wooden board to beat the prisoner below the waist, regardless of the number, until her muscles and bones were broken and her flesh and blood were blurred. It looked bright red from a distance. Therefore, “一丈” in the original text does not represent accurate measurement, and there is no need to translate “一丈红” into “3.33-meter red” in the translation. “Scarlett” in the translation means “sinful, unforgivable and licentious”, while Xia Chang was punished for violating palace rules in the play, so the translation of “the Scarlett Red” is not in line with the plot setting. Although the meaning of “the Scarlett Red” can be better understood by the target language audience, it will cause ambiguity. The derogatory meaning of this word can reflect the irony of the word “award”. Overall, it is feasible, but there is still room for improvement.(Zhou 2020:76)

SL:奴才如此,必然是上梁不正才下梁歪。

TL:They have surely been influenced by the improper behavior of their mistresses.

In Empresses in the Palace, this is imperial concubine Hua’s evaluation of the tyranny of slaves in the imperial palace. She thinks that this is because their masters’ virtue is notorious and is imitated by their subordinates. “The upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked” is a daily saying. In ancient China, most residents lived in houses with civil structures, which were basically composed of buildings, columns, beams, purlins, rafters and so on. “Beam” is a long wood that is erected on the columns along the front and rear directions. Generally, two houses with wooden structure should have three beams and six columns, and the construction process should also be based on precise calculation. Therefore, once the upper beam is misplaced and affects the whole house structure, the lower beam will naturally be crooked. Later, “the upper beam is not right and the lower beam is crooked” was used to compare the main people, such as leaders or elders, who do things against the law and moral standards, and the rest will learn to do so. This idiom in the original text is related to Chinese architectural structure, which may be difficult for the target language readers to understand. Moreover, for the translation of proverbs, we don't need to translate words by words, just translate its connotation. Although the translation of these two sentences has nothing to do with the source language, considering the cultural environment of the target language, the translation will be more in line with the development of the plot.(Zhou 2020:76)

SL:先敬罗衣后敬人。

TL:The clothing completes the person.

In the plot of Empresses in the Palace, Xia Dongchun was accidentally splashed with tea by An Lingrong and humiliated An by virtue of her own background. This line is what Zhen Huan said to An after the event. Its extended meaning is to satirize people by their appearance and judge a person’s character according to their appearance and dress. In the original text, “Luoyi” refers to silk clothes, which is another name for ancient clothes. The Chinese audience knows that it generally refers to clothes, but the target language audience can't understand the ancient Chinese language and culture. Therefore, the translator did not translate the word literally according to the source language, but followed the principle of communicative translation. In order to highlight the language effect, he translated it freely to avoid causing reading difficulties to the target language audience.(Zhou 2020:76)

SL:嬛嬛,你给了朕一对龙凤呈祥。

TL :Huan Huan,you have given me a dragon and a phoenix of good fortune.

In the plot of Empresses in the Palace, the emperor said this to Zhen Huan, who had just given birth to a pair of twins. “龙凤呈祥” means auspicious events, that is, giving birth to both boy and girl in the play. “Dragon and Phoenix fetus” means twins of a man and a woman, “dragon” describes men and “phoenix” describes women. Therefore, the English translation is “pigeon pair”. However, in translation, the translator did not translate “dragon and phoenix” into “pigeon pair”, but faithfully translated it into “a dragon and a phoenix of good fortune”. This is because in ancient China, “dragon” and “phoenix” were used to refer to emperors, noble people, or people with excellent talents. The emperor's descendants are people of noble status, and the birth of “dragon and Phoenix fetus” in China is a great auspicious thing, so the literal translation of “a dragon and a phoenix of good fortune” can not only express the substantive meaning of the original text, but also correspond to the translation.(Zhou 2020:76)

The Influence of Culture Turn on Chinese Subtitle Translation

With the development of “cultural turn”, feminist translation theory, postcolonial translation theory and post-imperialist translation theory came into being. Their characteristics are more concerned about politics, race and other political elements. At the same time, people gradually realize that the changes of any element in the cultural system are not independent, but exist and develop in coordination with each other. Under the influence of “cultural turn”, translation is regarded as a rewriting of the original text under specific conditions. The rewriting is produced under the action of history, society, culture and context. The translator puts various factors together to form a new text, in order to solve the untranslatable problem caused by cultural conflict in Translation.(Wang 2014:109)

Language is the carrier of culture, and the presentation of meaning is inevitably affected by cultural factors. In subtitle translation, cultural factors in both the source language and the target language play a key role. As a popular academic topic, cultural research has overwhelmed the general international academic research in the field of social science and art, especially translation research. Translation studies and cultural studies may be two different disciplines. They have a lot in common. They are interdisciplinary sciences and new disciplines in social sciences. Therefore, the development of cultural studies provides experience for the development of translation studies and plays a great role in promoting translation studies.(Wang 2014:109)

During the globalization of economic, cultural and information, the rapid development of mass media has a profound impact on our social life and ideology. As the most intuitive and vivid cultural product and carrier, film and television works are more and more welcomed by the public. Different from ordinary written translation, culture can only be conveyed by symbols. The audio-visual information synchronized with subtitles in film and television works can effectively interpret and convey culture. The multimedia nature of film and television works provides many favorable conditions for overcoming cultural differences.(Wang 2014:109)

The distinctive national cultural characteristics in Empresses in the Palace reflect the cultural and aesthetic value of national film and television works, which is the greatest advantage of Chinese film and television art. In the process of subtitle translation, the appropriate use of translation strategies can avoid the lack and fracture of cultural expression. While respecting the audience’s viewing feelings, it spreads Chinese traditional culture, and combines the mass characteristics of film and television works with the task of cultural communication. Only by showing the traditional oriental culture in modern western language can Chinese film and television works.(Wang 2014:109)

With the development of the film industry and the advent of the information age, the domestic audience’s demand for authentic films is growing. Therefore, subtitles for imported foreign films, especially British and American films, meet the audience's demand to a certain extent. This kind of film after subtitle translation can not only preserve the auditory enjoyment brought by the original language to the audience, but also promote the cultural transmission of film as a media. Subtitle translation is not only the transformation between two languages, but also a cultural transformation and the implantation of the target culture.(Wang 2014:109)

For a long time, film and television subtitle translation has attached great importance to the translation of cultural factors. However, many translators are vulnerable to the influence of conservative mentality such as cultural superiority, ethnocentrism, and cultural stereotypes. They cannot face up to his national culture in the process of translation with an equal attitude, so as to psychologically refuse the infiltration of other cultures, blindly use the way of domestication, and even use words with strong national color. The cultural transmission of translation does not just mean being faithful to the source culture, which will fall into another extreme position. The films produced by various countries have more or less the special brand of their own culture, which is inevitable. The plot, content or characters in the film are derived from life, but higher than life, which itself has cultural uniqueness. (Wang 2014:109)

When dealing with culture related subtitle translation, the translator should first investigate whether the cultural nature of the subtitle must be translated or can be omitted. Secondly, one should pay attention to the continuity and communication of culture, try to select the cultural characteristics that are easy for the target audience to accept, and omit some relevant information that has no great impact on the film. According to different types of films, the requirements for subtitle translation are also different. Comedies require subtitle translators to maximize the laughter of the original language, so that the target language audience can feel it and achieve the purpose of entertaining the public. Tragic films require subtitle translators to use the text of the original language to stimulate the inner resonance of the audience and follow the emotional life and death of the film characters. The requirements of subtitle translators will be different for films with different themes. Therefore, subtitle translation is by no means easy. How to make film and television subtitle translation equal to the original film not only in language, but also in culture is a new challenge for the translation community.(Wang 2014:109)

Conclusion

This paper mainly analyses the cultural turn in film and television subtitle translation and illustrates it with an example of Empresses in the Palace. The writer tried to find some proper strategies to deal with culture transmission problems in visual-audio subtitle translation especially the translation from Chinese to English, which are the combination of literal translation and free translation and the combination of domestication and foreignization. Translator’s task is to make a full use of those kind of translation strategies to transmit national culture, especially in such a condition of globalization and cultural communication. Moreover, the translation of the subtitle of Empresses in the Palace can be a good example for other translators. (Jiang 2009:14)

However, one case cannot be enough to illustrate the phenomenon of culture turn and there are few good film or television plays in Chinese, let alone the transmission our Chinese culture. Moreover, there must be more translation strategies could be used in subtitle translation, waiting us to explore.

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Written by --Li Aixuan (talk) 12:39, 13 December 2021 (UTC)