略谈《绝望主妇》中美式幽默的翻译

On the Subtitling Translation of American Humor in Desperate Housewives

幽默是商业电影或电视剧中译者最难处理的元素之一。美剧《绝望主妇》中出现了大量的不同类型的美式幽默。美式幽默自身的特点和字幕翻译的特点,为幽默的传译增加了极大的难度。传统的翻译标准已经不适用于美剧中美式幽默的翻译。而德国学者汉斯·威密尔(Hans Vermeer)创立的目的论,则可以为此类翻译做理论上的指导。

Humor is always very hard for translators to deal with in movies or TV series. In the TV series desperate housewives, there’re a variety of humors. American humor has its peculiar characteristics. Also, subtitling has its own defining features, which makes it even harder to translate and express the humor. In this sense, traditional translational theories are not suitable for this kind of translation. However, the Skopostheory, initiated by the German scholar, Hans Vermeer, can be used to guide this kind of translation.