A Study On The Translation Strategies Of English Movie Titles From The Perspective Of Domescation And Foreignization

Abstract：This paper discusses the translation of English film titles from the perspective of domestication and foreignization.The purpose of this paper is to apply domestication and foreignization strategies in English movie titles translation on the basis of a good understanding of both two strategies.The significance of this paper is to provide more background and information to the later scholars and researchers in studying on the translation strategies of English movie titles from the perspective of domestication and foreignization.

Key words：English movie titles；translation；domestication and foreignization

1 Introductions of Domestication and Foreignization

In 1813，Schleiermacher，a German translator pointed out in a speech on different translation methods： “there are two kinds of translation methods，translators should try not to “bother” the authors or the readers by choosing among the two.”Inspired by Schleiermacher，Italian language expert Lawrence first proposed the foreignization and domestication translation strategies in his books.Lawrence made the definitions of the domestication and foreignization as： “domestication refers to comply with the current mainstream values of the target language，so as to meet local law，publishing trends and political needs，while foreignization refers to the deviation from the mainstream values while retain the original content and cultural differences.”

2 The Review of the English movie titles translation

2.1 Regional Difference in English Movie Titles Translation

Different regions have different translation versions towards movie titles.Since the reform and opening up，the exchanges between the three regions have become increasingly frequent.A large number of English films through Hong Kong and Taiwan translation came into China，which resulted in three different film translations existing in mainland market.

2.2 Random Translation of English Movie Titles

Besides the confusion caused by different translation versions，the accuracy of movies titles translation is also an important issue.Movie The Day After Tomorrow describes a fiction story centering on America that came into the ice age with great climate change.This movie mainly talks about the bad effect of the environment caused by human beings.The title of this film is《末日浩劫》in Taiwan，which is appropriate，while the version in China mainland are《后天》and 《明日之后》 which make the audience confusion.

3 The Application of Domestication and Foreignization in English Movie Titles Translation

3.1 Cultural Heterogeneity in the Application of Domestication in English Movie Titles

During the translation in two different national languages，due to the difference between history and culture，it will appear the phenomenon of cultural heterogeneity.Dealing with the phenomenon of “heterogeneity” in the process of translation，different translation strategies should be selected for different situations.

When English film titles are translated into Chinese，translators should take the factor that Chinese people are linguistically in the habit of using four-character phrases and the poetic style with five or seven characters in a single line.Therefore，when English film titles are translated into the Chinese，translators have to take this factor into consideration.This can be illustrated by plenty of examples，such as，Shakespeare in Love（1998） 《莎翁情史》，Speed（1994）《生死时速》， Enemy at the Gate（2001）《兵临城下》，A Walk in the Clouds （1995）《云中漫步》，Catch Me If You Can（2002）《猫鼠游戏》，Scent of a Woman（1992） 《闻香识女人》，Pocahoutas《风中奇缘》，Far and Away《大地雄心》，etc.

3.2 Cultural Heterogeneity in the Application of Foreignation in English Movie Titles

In English movies，there are a lot of English film titles related to religion and myth.We cannot ignored the great influence of the ancient Greek myths of Rome as the source of the whole western culture to American culture.When translating this kind of title with strong cultural color，we can adopt the foreignization strategy.

The Seven Year Itch （1955） is an American film，telling a story about a publisher who has been married with a young woman for seven years.And at the seventh year，their marriage has occurred a trouble，but both the couple didnt give up their mind to restore their poor marriage.Finally，the couple have overcome the trouble and difficulty and love each other forever.This film was literally translated into 《七年之癢》 in Chinese and “七年之痒”，a totally foreign term，has since then been gradually accepted by Chinese audiences and has been widely spread in China after this film was introduced.

4 Conclusion

All in all，in movie titles translation research，we cannot separate these two strategies，the two translation strategies co-exist and complement each other.A good English movie title is determined by many factors besides the translation strategies such as the language，the style of the movie，the audience reaction and so on.So only combined these factors together we can produced a faithful，fluid and comprehensible translation attracted by the target audience.

References

[1]Venuti，Lawrence.The Translators Invisibility：A History of Translation[J].London and New York：Routlege，1995.

[2]Wang，Dongfeng.About Domestication and Foreignization[J].Chinese Translators Journal，2002.

[3]孙致礼.中国的文化翻译：从归化趋向异化[J].中国翻译，2002（01）.

[4]徐淼.同化和异化在英译汉影视翻译中的应用[D].上海外国语大学，2007.

作者简介

李宏宇（1993—），男，汉，山东人，硕士研究生，中国民航大学，翻译。