An Intertextual Approach To Film Title Translation

Disputes over translation in traditional translation approach are generally stumped on the persistent pursuit of superior criteria and approaches. However, in recent years, the translation researchers commence to study translation from multidisciplinary perspectives, involving semiotics, philosophy, history, literature theories and other fields, among which the theory of intertextuality provides an entirely new perspective bringing the researchers a broader view on text.The theory of intertextuality was first introduced to deconstruct the meaning and denounce the authority of the author. It is the theory on text, which emerged from the works of western post-structuralists. Its basic connotation is that: every text is constructed as a mosaic of citation; every text is an absorption and transformation of other texts. It is viable and necessary to deem intertextuality as a prominent perspective in translation studies.The theory of intertextuality claims that a literary text is not to be considered as an autonomous, self-contained entity but as a dependent intertextual construct. Therefore, the understanding of a certain text cannot be fulfilled without resorting to some other texts. The other texts referred to are not only the literary works and the whole literature heritage, but in a broad sense, the combination of social and cultural texts.Besides, the production and reception of a given text depends upon the participants'knowledge which is constructed on the basis of the intertextual network composed by the pre-texts staying in the memory of the participants. Therefore, the translator is bound to take the target reader into consideration in the process of translation.Taking these connotations as its underlying theoretical basis, this thesis examines, mainly by way of practical analysis, the relationship between intertextuality and film title translation.Firstly, the paper focuses its attention on the intertextual background knowledge of the text which seems to be largely overlooked by a strictly linguistic analysis of semantic components. Some film titles are direct and concise, the understanding of which confined to the original text is enough for interpretation in terms of the target text. However, there are some film titles which are embedded with rich intertextual references, requiring the translator to have a comprehensive grasp of the original text before rendering it into the target language. By analysis of some typical cases of misunderstanding, it is verified that a full understanding of all that is involved in the film title requires the translator's firm grasp of the encyclopedic knowledge and intertexts surrounding it.It then switches to the intertextuality's influence on the encoding stage of film title translation. The translation of a text requires drawing upon the intertextual knowledge of the target reader. Therefore, the translator is expected to render or even paraphrase the source film title by using the corresponding expression in the target language with relevant target culture intertextual relationship implied in it. In this process, the specific intertextual references of the target language, especially allusion and parody, are most frequently employed by the translator for desired functions. Based on the discussion, the paper has proposed three intertextuality-inspired approaches: a) metaphrase, which is sub-divided into literal translation, literal translation with slight adaptation in language form and literal translation plus explanation; b) paraphrase; and c) renaming, which includes partial renaming and total renaming. Generally speaking, literal translation or adapted literal translation is most frequently applied in translating those film titles which are unembedded with rich intertextual relationship or can evoke similar intertextual association among the target audience and the source audience. And paraphrasing is employed on condition that the metaphrase approach fails to achieve the desired goals. If neither of the two approaches can help to convey the full meaning of the original title or to evoke rich intertextual association on the part of the target audience, renaming may be applied by the translator as the last resort in translating film titles.In view of the specific intertextual features of film title translation, the essential task of the translator is to reconstruct the intratextual link between the film title and the film as closely as possible in the target title to evoke rich intertextual association on the part of the target audience by employing appropriate intertextuality-inspired approaches.