The Analysis On Domestication And Foreignization In Film Title Translation

As a special art form that combines sound and pictures, film is strongly favored by people across the world. Film reflects reality and fantasy. It lets audiences have a general idea about life in different cultures, even when an audience cannot fully understand the language. We can say that film is the carrier of culture, a bridge between different cultures. With cross-cultural communication becoming more and more important in a global economy, more and more foreign films are being seen in China. At the same time many Chinese films are entering world markets.As a label that tells audiences something about the film, the film title plays an important role in identifying the work and promoting the film's popularity. It can contribute to the success of the film and help it to achieve a big box office. Successful translation of a film title is not an easy task. An excellent film title translation should not only be concise, memorable and respect both languages but also be honest to the overall content of the film. Ideally it should have the same character as the original and be full of artistic charm, thereby achieving a recreation of art.There are many challenges in film title translation. Research about film title translation is inadequate; there is a need for more empirical information and identification of principles. This thesis has analyzed the features and functions of the film title and identified common translation techniques, finding that properly communicating cultural values is a major difficulty in film title translation. Therefore, the author applies the strategies of domestication and foreignization to guide the translation process. Discussion of those strategies is supported by plenty of examples. At the same time the author points out that appropriate application of the two strategies and use of film title translation techniques can achieve adequate, even perfect translations. Based on the analysis the author also indicates that although the domestication strategy has the dominant role in film title translation and cross-cultural communication becomes more important foreignization will become more and more significant. Finally the author also discusses elements affecting the application of the two strategies in film title translation.