ArticleTranslation Theories and Skills http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2026.02.011
A Study on the Translation Strategies of Emotional and Cultural-loaded Dialogues in Call Me by Your Name
Jingyi Zhong, Liang Luo*, Ziqi Li, Xin Chen, Xinyue Li
School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Panzhihua University, Panzhihua 617000, Sichuan, China.
*Corresponding author: Liang Luo
Published: February 28, 2026
Abstract
This thesis explores the translation strategies for the emotionally intense and culturally rich dialogues of the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name in its Chinese versions. Positioned at the intersection of audiovisual translation (AVT) and queer linguistics, it addresses a gap in existing scholarship—previous research has focused on the film’s themes, aesthetics, and sociopolitics but neglected its linguistic and cultural mediation across languages. Guided by Eugene Nida’s Functional Equivalence theory, the study examines how translators balance conveying subtle emotional nuances and accurate cultural references. Through close textual analysis of key dialogues (e.g., the iconic “Call me by your name” exchange, symbolic elements like “peach” and “Prosecco”, and expressions of desire, longing, and regret), dominant strategies including foreignization, domestication, literal translation with emotional adjustment, and paraphrase are identified and evaluated. A comparative analysis of Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese official versions reveals how distinct translational choices generate different interpretive effects for Chinese-speaking audiences. Findings indicate that successful translation of queer cinematic dialogues requires both linguistic competence and sensitivity to the interplay of emotion, culture, and identity in the source text. This research enriches queer translation studies and provides practical insights for audiovisual translators working with culturally and emotionally saturated texts.
Keyword
Call Me by Your Name; audiovisual translation; Functional Equivalence; cultural-loaded dialogue; emotionally charged dialogue; translation strategies
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Copyright
© 2026 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
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How to cite this paper
A Study on the Translation Strategies of Emotional and Cultural-loaded Dialogues in Call Me by Your Name
How to cite this paper: Jingyi Zhong, Liang Luo, Ziqi Li, Xin Chen, Xinyue Li. (2026). A Study on the Translation Strategies of Emotional and Cultural-loaded Dialogues in Call Me by Your Name. Translation and Foreign Language Learning, 2(2), 243-253.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2026.02.011