Rewriting Theory In The Translation Of Humor In Sitcoms

As one of today's major kinds of comedy, sitcoms are wildly popular for their frequent drama conflicts, humorous dialogues and vivid characterization. Nowadays, with the advancement of science and technology and network media, western sitcoms, especially American sitcoms flood into Chinese market. How could these sitcoms overcome regional, cultural and linguistic barrier to make audience from another side of the ocean laugh out loud is the focus of this paper.The well-known British translation theorist Hermans introduced the theory of the manipulate school into translation studies. Andre Lefevere carried forward this manipulation view by proposing the definition of "rewriting". In his book Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame, he points out that rewriting is mainly influenced by ideology and poetics under different historical situations and that translation is not only language transformation but also cultural rewriting by translators. Lefevere's rewriting theory could be applied to retain humor in subtitle translation of sitcoms.The Simpsons is a well-known American cartoon sitcom produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. The sitcom starts broadcasting from 1989 to today's season 27, making it one of the longest TV shows in American history. The subtitle translation of The Simpsons is not constrained by words, but applies many internet buzzwords and words of distinctive Chinese character, making the subtitle more vivid and humorous. This thesis intends to analysis the rewriting theory applied in the subtitle translation of The Simpsons and its effects, to fill the gap in subtitle translation theory. The author hopes that more attention could be paid to subtitling translation and its theory, so that western sitcoms could bring more happiness to Chinese audience without reducing any humorous effect.