Rewriting When Translating: Translation Of English Film Titles

The present thesis discusses English film title translation from the perspective of rewriting theory. The author draws a sketch to describe the procedure of film title translation, a process of rewriting, which is composed of three stages, viz., the preparation stage, the analysis and rewriting stage and the choice making stage, among which the second is the most important one. After a brief introduction to each of the stages, the author details factors affecting the rewriting of film titles and finds that the qualities of the translator, the patronage and the target poetics are key factors affecting the rewriting of the film titles. The qualities of the translator are composed of the faithfulness, the aesthetic concept and the cultural sensitivity of the translator, film producers, the audience and the film censorship make up the patronage while the dominant poetics of the target language refer to the linguistic features and the compatibility of it. The thesis also reviews the effects brought by the rewriting of film titles. It is found that the positive effects outweigh the negative ones and it is further suggested that there should be a limit to rewriting so as to avoid the low taste and vulgar translations.