Audiovisual Translation

Theories, Methods and Issues

Luis Perez-Gonzalez

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780415530255
• eBook ISBN: 9781317649892
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Audiovisual translation is the fastest growing strand within translation studies.

This book addresses the need for more robust theoretical frameworks to investigate emerging text- types, address new methodological challenges (including the compilation, analysis and reproduction of audiovisual data), and understand new discourse communities bound together by the production and consumption of audiovisual texts.

In this clear, user- friendly book, Luis Pérez-González introduces and explores the field, presenting and critiquing key concepts, research models and methodological approaches.
Features include:

• introductory overviews at the beginning of each chapter, outlining aims and relevant connections with other chapters
• breakout boxes showcasing key concepts, research case studies or other relevant links to the wider field of translation studies
• examples of audiovisual texts in a range of languages with back translation support when required
• summaries reinforcing key issues dealt with in each chapter
• follow- up questions for further study
• core references and suggestions for further reading.
• additional online resources on an extensive companion website

This will be an essential text for all students studying audiovisual or screen translation at postgraduate or advanced undergraduate level and key reading for all researchers working in the area.

Part I Disciplinary and Industrial Foundations

1 Mapping an Evolving Conceptual Network

DOI: 10.4324/9781315762975-2

For those with a philosophical disposition, there can be a depressing aspect to subtitling. Condensing sentences helps us to realize that it is possible to say almost anything using only a few words, to the extent that the human faculty of language is, if you like, superfluous. The pleasure of conversation, the exchange of ideas, everything can be reduced to simply a few grunts. The Stone Age, as we know it.

(Caillé 1960: 103, my translation)

Dubbing is a unique form of translation as it is blessed with the gift of total fidelity. It is the only type of translation that respects the written text, the life of words and the entire soul of language – both its visible and secret affections: diction, mimicry, gestures, demeanour, as well as intellectual and moral behaviour. If one wished to classify the different types of translation along hierarchical lines, would dubbing not deserve to be located at the apex of the pyramid?

(Cary 1969: 111, my translation)

In this chapter

Although it was first conceived to facilitate the international distribution of films, audiovisual translation is now used to mediate an ever more heterogeneous range of screen-mediated texts. The widening remit of audiovisual translation accounts for the wealth of terms that have been used to designate this field of practice and scholarly inquiry over the last thirty years, including but not limited to ‘film translation’, ‘screen translation’, ‘multimedia translation’ and ‘audiovisual translation’. Today, audiovisual translation encompasses a variety of transfer methods, which are surveyed here under three major headings: subtitling, revoicing (incorporating lip-synchronized dubbing, voice-over, narration, free commentary, and simultaneous interpreting), and assistive forms of audiovisual translation (subtitling for the hard of hearing, respeaking and audio description) – which aim to facilitate access to information and entertainment for sensory impaired members of the community. Each of these modalities is defined and a brief overview of its features and development prospects is presented. The final section traces the changes in the way audiovisual texts have been conceptualized within the translation studies literature since the 1960s, as part of the processes of academization and institutionalization of the field.

Watch the Introduction Video

1.1 The Widening Remit of Audiovisual Translation

During the last fifteen years, audiovisual translation has been the fastest growing strand of translation studies, as attested by the burgeoning body of domain-specific research literature, the development of undergraduate modules inducting students to relevant practices in the field, and the proliferation of specialized postgraduate courses, doctoral research summer schools and conferences – both academic and industry-oriented – all over the world. This exponential growth would appear to have been prompted by two main developments:

• communication technology has become an integral part of social life, as attested by the ever bigger impact and wider dissemination of audiovisual content vis-à-vis the circulation of literary texts and other materials published in the print media. Our increasing exposure to visual semiotics and different forms of interplay between verbal and non-verbal meaning-making resources is influencing and modifying our patterns of engagement with and reception of screen-based texts – whether they are produced and consumed for instrumental or contemplative purposes.
• the mutually shaping relationship between audiovisual translation and technological innovation has created a need for (i) robust theoretical frameworks to assist with the conceptualization of new text-types; (ii) new methodological approaches to guide the researcher through issues pertaining to the compilation, manipulation and analysis of samples of audiovisual data; and (iii) a better understanding of the new discourse communities formed around the production and consumption of established and emerging audiovisual text-types.

For all the academic hype surrounding audiovisual translation, there is ample evidence that the work of audiovisual translators and scholars remains poorly understood by society at large – including academics working in what may be regarded as neighbouring disciplines. By way of example, consider the two examples included in Box 1.1.

Box 1.1

Nornes (2007: 3–4)

Outside of film production and distribution, ideas and theories about film circulate the globe in translation, alighting in a certain place to be rejected, rearticulated, or assimilated. Furthermore, we must not neglect the role translation plays in canon formation, and the establishment, development, and maintenance of an academic discipline such as film studies, especially in its national cinema subfields.

However, despite the rich complexity of film translators’ task and their singular role in mediating the foreign in cinema, they have been virtually ignored in film studies. Within translation studies, in contrast, there has recently been a proliferation of work, but it has almost exclusively concentrated on practical issues for translators, linguistic analysis, or the physiology of the peculiar brand of speed-reading demanded by subtitles. Scholars in either discipline have yet to explore in depth the historical, cultural and ideological issues I will attend to here.

Denison (2011: 453)

[W]ork on online anime fandom tends to be found in fields nominally separate from the study of both anime and fandom: in translatology and legal studies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the former of these groups has been particularly concerned with mapping the practices of anime fan subtitlers (Díaz Cintas and Muñoz Sánchez 2006; Pérez-González 2006), while the latter has been concerned with the issue of copyright infringement (Daniels 2008; Hatcher 2005). Again though, and perhaps because of their clear reasons for focusing elsewhere, what is lacking in these studies is a sense of how fan subtitling groups relate to other kinds of anime fans, and how they present and perceive their work. Perceptions of fan subtitlers will be shown to play a role in broader community understandings of anime online, but there is potentially much more at stake in examining these fan subtitlers.

In these sample excerpts, Nornes (2007) and Denison (2011) reflect on the contribution of audiovisual translation studies to their respective scholarly fields, i.e. film studies and fandom studies. Despite the differences that exist between their disciplinary affiliations, both scholars share a common insight: the attention of audiovisual translation specialists tends to be focused almost exclusively on the practicalities of language mediation. As a result, Nornes and Denison argue, audiovisual translation specialists would appear to overlook the connections between the mechanical aspects of this mediation activity and the wider contexts in which audiovisual texts are embedded. As even newcomers to our field would agree, this is a rather narrow perception of what goes on in audiovisual translation, and one that the most cursory examination of publications on the different domains of the discipline should be able to dispel. The fact remains, however, that scholars in the field have not succeeded in communicating the wealth and relevance of their research beyond their own disciplinary constituencies.

I would argue that this relative failure is, to some extent, the result of the fast pace of technological progress witnessed since the beginning of the twentieth century, a period during which screen-based texts – ranging from films to videogames and the interface of software applications – have become increasingly ubiquitous. The successive stages of this expansion process can be traced by observing the changes in the terminology that specialists have used to designate this field of inquiry at different points in time (Chaume Varela 2004):

• Given the crucial contribution of audiovisual translation to the development of cinema as an art form (see Section 2.3), particularly during the formative years of film, it is only logical that the terms ‘film dubbing’ or ‘film translation’ gained so much currency in early studies on audiovisual translation (Fodor 1976, Snell-Hornby 1988/1995).
• The subsequent advent of televised broadcasting as a private commodity and its transformation into a mass medium of communication and entertainment provided new outlets for the dissemination of audiovisual translated texts. In keeping with this development in the global media ecology, terms such as ‘film and TV translation’ (Delabastita 1989) and ‘media translation’ (Eguíluz et al. 1994) came to feature more prominently in the specialized literature.
• More recently, the computerization of audiovisual texts, i.e. the popularization of electronic and/or digital media content to be viewed on the screen of a computer or a portable electronic device, has introduced some new terminology in the field. Terms such as ‘screen translation’ (Mason 1989, O’Connell 2007) and ‘multimedia translation’ (Gambier and Gottlieb 2001) are indicative of the extent to which audiovisual translation has grown far beyond its original disciplinary boundaries, bringing the investigation of ever new textual manifestations into its research remit.
• At different points during this period, specialists have also proposed terms that signal the medial restrictions (e.g. limited number of characters available to translate a text) under which audiovisual translators operate, e.g. ‘constrained translation’ (Titford 1982, Mayoral et al. 1988). From a complementary perspective, others have opted to foreground the transformative dimension of audiovisual mediation, as translators often need to distance themselves from the original text to cater for new audiences – e.g. Gambier’s (2003) ‘transadaptation’ – or preserve the immersive function of media content – e.g. Bernal Merino’s (2006) ‘transcreation’.

Amid this terminological inflation, Díaz Cintas and Remael have recently suggested that the term ‘audiovisual translation (AVT) has been gaining ground in recent years and is fast becoming the standard referent’ (2007: 11–12).

1.2 Modalities of Audiovisual Translation

1.2.1 Subtitling

Widely regarded as an evolved version of the primitive intertitles (Section 2.2), subtitles are snippets of written text superimposed on visual footage that convey a target language version of the source speech. Conventionally, each of the snippets into which the original speech – whether in the form of dialogue or narration – is divided for the purposes of translation has to be delivered in synchrony with the corresponding fragment of spoken language. In communities where several linguistic constituencies co-exist, ‘bilingual subtitles’ convey two language versions of the same source fragment, one in each line of the subtitle (Gambier 2003).

Subtitling has been defined as a ‘diasemiotic’ or ‘intermodal’ form of audiovisual translation (Gottlieb 1997: 95), as it involves the shift from a spoken to a written medium. Given that ‘people generally speak much faster than they read’ (O’Connell 1998: 67), this shift has important consequences for viewers’ experience of translated audiovisual texts. The empirical observation that, in order to match the temporalities of speaking and reading, subtitles can only accommodate 60 per cent of the source spoken text (de Linde and Kay 1999: 51) explains why they are normally worded as condensed, streamlined versions of the original dialogue (Karamitroglou 1998). These medial restrictions, that were first articulated in the 1930s (Section 2.3), dictate that the number of characters used in each subtitle should be commensurate with the duration of the corresponding speech unit and the reading speed of the target audience (Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007).

As discussed in Sections 2.4 and 4.5.2, the subtitlers’ adherence to industry validated standards – notably, the condensation and synthesis of the original spoken dialogue – has been shown to compromise the interpersonal pragmatics of subtitled dialogue. For example, audiovisual translators tend to disambiguate instances of conversational ambiguity or indirectness that may have played an important narrative role in the original text (Hatim and Mason 1997, Mason 2001). It has also been suggested that conforming to these constraints often proves detrimental to the dynamics of dramatic characterization envisaged by the creator of the original audiovisual text, particularly in the case of films or TV drama (Remael 2003). As a result, characters’ personalities may not be perceived by viewers as the film director had intended. It is therefore not surprising that independent film directors have raised criticisms against the creative limitations derived from these constraints (see Section 2.4). As illustrated in Box 1.2, deconstructing commercial subtitling standards represents an effective strategy for creators to signal their resistance to mainstream subtitling practices.

Box 1.2

As part of his study on ‘accented’ or diasporic films, Naficy (2004: 145–46) reviews the creative use of subtitles by Vietnamese film director Trinh T. Minh-ha.

Trinh’s Surname Viêt Given Name Nam uses superimposed titles and subtitles extensively, graphically, and critically. Their large numbers and varied contents and layout give this film a truly calligraphic accent. Throughout, subtitles consisting of the translation of the film’s dialogue and voice-over and of Vietnamese poetry and proverbs are displayed, as is customary, in the lower third of the screen. However, on many occasions, what the diegetic women say in Vietnamese or in heavily accented English is superimposed in different layouts, as blocks of English text on various regions of the film frame, including over the characters’ faces. These graphic titles, or what Trinh calls ‘visualized speech’, act as traditional subtitles by aiding spectator comprehension. However, they also serve other graphic, critical, and deconstructive functions … To these text-based complexities must be added Trinh’s filming style that in Surname Viêt Given Name Nam, like in her other films, violates many of the norms of cinematic realism as a critique of those norms. For example, in some sequences she places the subjects on the margins of the frame or decentres them by panning away from them. Close-up shots that would normally show the subjects’ full-face end up cutting off part of their faces. The film also subverts the accepted practices of lip-synching and title synchronization. Extra long or short duration titles draw attention to themselves and to the spectatorial readerly activities that are involved.

But the capacity to develop new subtitling conventions is not the sole privilege of text producers. Recent changes in the audiovisual landscape, notably the development of digitization techniques and new models of distribution and consumption of audiovisual products, have provided the impetus for the spread of transformational practices. Generally speaking, these new subtitling cultures aim to expose the expressive limitations of mainstream subtitling conventions. Fansubbing, namely the subtitling of television drama and films by networked fan communities, seeks to redress the shortage and cultural insensitivity of commercial translations (Section 3.3). Using a range of daring formal conventions, fansubbers produce and distribute their own subtitled versions through Internet-based channels and, in so doing, provide their fellow fans with a more ‘authentic’ and meaningful spectatorial ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Permissions
• Introduction
• Part I: Disciplinary and Industrial Foundations
• Part II: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives
• Part III: New Directions
• Glossary
• Filmography
• Bibliography
• Subject index
• Name index
• Film/drama index