A study on the subtitle translation of the American TV series Person of Interest from the perspective of skopos theory

Journal: Region - Educational Research and Reviews DOI: 10.32629/rerr.v6i3.1861

Hongyu BAO

School of Foreign Languages, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics

Abstract

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, society's concern about its potential negative impacts has increasingly grown. Against this backdrop, the American TV series Person of Interest, with its avant-garde exploration of the risks associated with the application of artificial intelligence technology, has once again come into focus. The series not only showcases the relationship between artificial intelligence and privacy protection but also delves into the potential conflicts between machine intelligence and human moral judgment. Its plot setting is closely connected to the current global concerns about artificial intelligence, sparking people's thoughts on the complex relationship between technology and ethics. For film and television dissemination, choosing the appropriate translation theory for subtitle translation is crucial for content transmission. Skopos theory, the core theory of the German functionalist school of translation, provides valuable guidance for film and television subtitle translation. This theory was proposed and developed by the renowned German translation theorist Hans Vermeer in the 1970s. Skopos theory has three rules: the skopos rule, the coherence rule, and the fidelity rule, which complement each other. This paper starts from these three rules of skopos theory and, combined with different cases, deeply analyzes the subtitle translation strategies of the American TV series Person of Interest in the hope of offering suggestions and references for such film and television subtitle translations, thereby promoting the improvement and development of film and television subtitle translation.

Keywords

subtitle translation; skopos theory; Person of Interest

References

[1] Zhang J. 2004. Purpose theory and translation methods. Chinese Science & Technology Translators Journal, 1: 35-37+13.
[2] Reiss K, Vermeer HJ. 1984. Groundwork for a General Theory of Translation. Tubingen: Niemeyer.
[3] Qian S. 2000. Film and television translation: an increasingly important field in the translation domain. Chinese Translation, 1: 61-65.

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