The Translator Image in Film: A Case Study of C-3PO
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63313/LLCS.9144Keywords:
Imagology, Translator Image, C-3PO, Star WarsAbstract
Rapid advances in digital technology have profoundly transformed traditional modes of translation, with artificial intelligence increasingly emerging as a key agent in language services. Against this background, the image of the artificial intelligence translator in film and television has emerged as an important cultural text through which we can examine the translator’s image in the AI era. Taking C-3PO, a protocol droid in the Star Wars movie franchise, as the research subject, this study analyzes the construction of his translator image from an imagological perspective, focusing on three dimensions: information transmitter, crisis witness, and conflict mediator. The study finds that, on the one hand, C-3PO reproduces the translator’s long-standing condition of discursive marginalization and instrumentalization, while on the other hand his representation exposes the limitations of artificial intelligence translators in interpreting complex contexts and exercising cultural judgments. This image not only reflects the translator’s subordinate position but also highlights the continuing limitations of artificial intelligence in fully replacing human translators, revealing the dual predicament faced by translators in the AI era characterized by technological dependence on the one hand and the struggle for subjectivity on the other.
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