E-C Audiovisual Translation: A Perspective Of Mass Communication

Nowadays, English films with their enchanting plots and special life-style flood into China; therefore E-C audiovisual translation seems indispensable. However, to our great surprise, according to the author's investigation in 2003, we find that a great many viewers are complaining about the low quality of audiovisual translation.Despite of the pervasive practice and profound influence and universal complaints, little research has been conducted in this area both home and abroad.Audiovisual program is a kind of multi-media performance where dialogs work together with visual images, soundtracks and music. Thus, audiovisual translation with various constraints, compared with literary translation, is much more complicated.This paper, based on mass communication theory, ventures to draw a model of audiovisual translating so as to discuss E-C audiovisual translation. The author suggests that E-C audiovisual translation today should be target-audience-oriented. "The dubbing translator as native speaker" and "the subtitling translator as economist" are two sub-principles for dubbing translation and subtitling translation respectively. The whole paper can be divided into three parts.Chapter 1 first introduces the process of mass communication and its essential elements, guided by the 5W Model provided by the American scholar Lasswell. Then the theory of "uses and gratifications" and the theory of "the communicator as gatekeeper" are inquired into. Since mass communication is an interactive process between the communicator and the audience, it is ideal if both the intention of the communicator and "the uses and gratifications" of the audience are satisfied under the guidance of the two paralleled theories. It is particularly emphasized that thecommunicator while achieving his goal should take the uses and gratifications of the audience into serious consideration.Chapter 2 illustrates the feasibility of applying mass communication theory to audiovisual translation from 2 aspects: audiovisual translating, as a sub-field of general translating is a communication event; audiovisual translation works as a partial carrier of the message in the communication process. The author creatively draws an Audiovisual Translating Model in the light of the mass communication model, and uses it to discuss audiovisual translation process. The characteristics of film language and of the Chinese audience are analyzed in detail in this chapter.Chapter 3 puts forward a criterion, target audience orientation, for E-C audiovisual translation. First of all, the author compares audiovisual translation with literary translation to reveal the former's peculiar characteristics with the aid of her two models. The author holds that the audiovisual translator's action is restricted by three channels (written scripts, aural elements and visual signals) whereas the audience benefits from audiovisual channels. Then the author goes further to propose that E-C audiovisual translation should be target-audience-oriented with the support of audience orientation in mass communication and the theory of "audience design" in translation theory. Moreover, sub-principles, such as "legibility" and "orality" are given and demonstrated. The controversy, to domesticate or to foreignize, is touched upon in the discussion of the principle of intelligibility. Dividing the issue into two dimensions, the author suggests that domestication takes priority on linguistic dimension while on the dimension of cultural studies, priority varies with power to some degree, and the audience's acceptability that is conditioned by cultural distance. Lastly, dubbing and subtitling are discussed respectively. According to the author's principles of "the dubbing translator as native speaker" and "the subtitling translator as economist", the correspondingstrategies are given and inquired into, accompanied by living examples.