On Movie Title Translation from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics

摘要

Movie is a popular art which occupies an important position in people’s leisure time. Movie title,as the most direct and accessible tool for audience to know about the movie,is very significant to attract audience into the cinema. Therefore,the translation of movie title cannot be ignored. However,due to the cultural differences in Chinese and English culture,the problem of movie title translation is obvious which needs to be paid attention to the translation and people working in movie industry.Traditional translation theory puts more emphasis on the important and authoritative status of original text and author. But this notion cannot satisfy the needs of movie title translation to the largest extent. Movie is not only a cultural and linguistic product,it also is a special commercial product. The ultimate objective of movie is to allure the audience into the cinema to watch and appreciate it in addition to provide the cultural information. Reception aesthetics,as a theory of literary criticism,gives priority to readers’ role in literary understanding and interpretation. According to reception aesthetics,the horizon of expectation should be taken into consideration when the translation work begins to be done. Horizon of expectation is composed of the readers’ or audiences’ previous cultural norms,assumptions,and criteria in the source language and culture at a given time. Movie title,as a special text,is also understood and influenced by the audience’s horizon of expectation. Chinese audience,before they decide to watch a movie,are naturally harbor their horizon of expectation about the movie. They will form their judgment and assumptions about the genre,plot,story,background about the movie from the movie title. These kind of horizon of expectation will consequently influence their ultimate decision to watch the movie or not. Hence,in doing the movie title translation,the translator is supposed to keep the audience’s horizon of expectation in mind and try his utmost to achieve the fusion of expectation. In this way,the comparatively satisfactory version is likely to come into being and finally will live up to the audience’s expectations. As a result,from the perspective of reception aesthetics,the author proposes three feasible translation methods of movie title: literal translation,free translation and adaptation.