Abstract
People of different nations could understand a nation`s abundant culture and history through its allusions. Allusion is a path from which people could reach the core of a culture. In American TV series, allusions are used quite often. People who are not native Americans may find it difficult to understand the plot if they do not know the meaning of allusions. Therefore, it is quite important for translator to translate the script precisely, not only fit the context, but also facilitate the understanding. This essay will study the translation of allusions in TV series from perspective of relevance theory, and analyze the translation strategies in American TV series from three aspects: exploitation of the contextual information shared by both audience and the author, exploitation of the contextual information in target language and exploitation of the translator’s cognitive process. This essay will try to find optimal relevance in different situation. In this way, the target audience will get a better understanding of allusions in American TV series.
Keywords   relevance theory   allusion translation   American TV series

典故承载了一个民族浓厚的文化底蕴，是了解民族深厚文化底蕴的窗口。美剧中随处可见大量的典故引用，一方面让观众更加透彻的了解历史文化背景，但同时，文化差异会给观众带来理解上的困难。因此，如何将美剧中的典故原汁原味的翻译出来，既符合语境，又让观众可以接受和理解，是美剧字幕翻译中的一个重要问题。本文试从关联理论的角度，探讨译者如何调用剧中的语境知识、利用译文读者特有的语境知识以及调用双方共有的语境知识三个方面，翻译美剧字幕中的典故，达到最佳关联，从而使观众可以更好的理解美剧中的典故。
关键词  关联理论  典故翻译  美剧

1.    Introduction
1.1 Research Object
This paper aimed at analyzing allusion translation. An allusion is a representation or a reference of a historical event, literary work, myth, work of art, a place, a person, either directly or indirectly, when writing or making a speech. The study of allusion translation in American TV series is to analyze the method and content of translation in the subtitle of American TV series.

The Case TV Series The Big Bang Theory is a recently hot American TV series all over the world. It shows the happy and funny life of four physical geniuses and their neighbor, a beautiful but not so smart girl. The series now have broadcast for four years, and have four seasons. As a modern comedy, lots of things are shown through dialogues between characters. There are a lot of allusions in this TV series. According to my statistics, just from season 1 episode 1 to season 1 episode 10, there are altogether 57 allusions. Since allusions concern some historical, literary or cultural knowledge, it is definitely important to translate such a great number of allusions in TV series.