Cultural and Temporal Transfer in a Heritage Film Oliver Twist (2005)

Lisi Liang

doi:10.47476/jat.v2i1.2020.27

Abstract

The paper will focus on how history is reshaped in a case study: the film adaptation of Oliver Twist (2005). It is of significance as its Chinese authorised subtitles mediate nineteenth-century British history for a contemporary Chinese audience. But this adaptation creates various problems of translation as it negotiates the cultural and linguistic transfer between early Victorian England and twenty-first-century China. To illustrate the challenge that translators and audiences face, examples drawn from the subtitles are grouped under Eva Wai-Yee Hung’s (1980) suggested aspects of Dickens’s world: “religious beliefs, social conventions, biblical and literary allusions and the dress and hairstyle of the Victorian era”. Moreover, Andrew Higson’s “heritage” theory (1996a), William Morris’s (Bassnett, 2013) views of historical translation and Nathalie Ramière’s (2010) cultural references specific to Audiovisual Translation are adopted to read the Chinese subtitles. They are used to bring back the audiences to an impossible, inaccessible past. The historical features shown in this modern version of a British heritage film make it possible for the subtitles to interact with Chinese culture to transfer meaning via a complex combination of translation strategies. Therefore, in order to rejuvenate Chinese cultural heritage, the subtitles of the cultural and temporal specificities and complexities involved are reinterpreted and redirected to the receiving culture

Highlights

There are many film adaptations of the world classic novel Oliver Twist, set in nineteenth-century England
Oliver Twist was serialised at the commencement of the Victorian era in 1837 (Grubb, 1941, p. 209; Kuhn, 1987, p. 111), and the novel reflect the beliefs and customs of the early Victorian era only, as the Victorian era spans from 1837 to 1901; the 2005 film adaptation kept close to the original story, so the same beliefs and customs are depicted there
Though the level of archaism of the original in relation to language and culture may be mediated by the Chinese subtitles, the theme in relation to religious and temporal differences between early Victorian England and 21st century China are transferred to the Chinese audience

Summary

Introduction

There are many film adaptations of the world classic novel Oliver Twist, set in nineteenth-century England. The film under study was first released in 2005 and on 30th April 2006 (NetEase, 2006) in China, one year after its original release. As this 2005 Chinese sanctioned subtitled film mediates nineteenth-century British history for a contemporary Chinese audience, this film is worth analysing. Based on the textual effect of the subtitles, the paper explores whether the historical context of Victorian England is made accessible to the Chinese audiences

Background

Delay and Fansubbing

Oliver Twist in the British and the Chinese Contexts

Research Questions

Theoretical Framework

Religious Terminology

Biblical Allusions

Social Conventions

Other Elements of the Victorian Era

Results and Analysis

Conclusion