Language and identity representation in the English subtitles of Almodóvar ’ s films (original) (raw)
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Publication: Translation and Interpreting Studies. The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association. John Benjamins Publishing Company. No. 11.2. (June 2016) ISSN 1932-2798 Abstract: This article examines the decisions involved in translating swear words and sexually explicit language in Pedro Almodóvar’s film ¡Átame! (“Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!”) from Spanish into English and Polish. Possible motivations for specific renditions will be suggested via a comparison of the source and target language versions. This analysis aims to investigate how the target culture and the film industry can influence the sometimes-delicate task of translating obscene and strong language. Beyond the mere transfer of words from one language into another, translating is, above all, an intercultural activity in which ideology and social values play an important role in the translation process. Therefore, the characteristics of the target culture must be considered before analyzing the translation product. Moreover, the cost-benefit criterion is a crucial component of audiovisual translation, especially in the film industry. Reflection on the circumstances in which the film was released in the United States and in Poland allows for predictions about what to expect from the translation and also establishes a hypothesis for testing. This article calls for reflection on translation decisions and the author’s influence on how closely the translation follows the original. Likewise, the article examines the extent to which economic interests prevail over socio-cultural values. Keywords: Almodóvar, audiovisual translation, profanity, sociocultural values, audience expectations.
Estudio sobre la subtitulación del lenguaje ofensivo y tabú en los guiones de Tarantino, 2015
Offensive and taboo language presents a challenge for subtitlers, given the impact that it can have on an audience, particularly in its written form (Díaz Cintas 2001b). The present paper contains a descriptive analysis of the subtitling of offensive and taboo language, mainly from English into Spanish, from a translational, linguistic and technical point of view. Based on three of Quentin Tarantino's films -Reservoir Dogs ), Pulp Fiction (1994 and Inglourious Basterds (2009) -, particular attention is paid to the way in which these terms and expressions were subtitled for the benefit of a Spanish audience. By using a multi-strategy design in which mostly quantitative and some qualitative data are combined, the main goal of the paper is to look into the way this type of language was subtitled in these films, thereby enabling other scholars to use this same methodology when undertaking research on similar projects, in the same or in different language combinations.
The pragmatic dimensions of swearing in films: Searching for coherence in dubbing strategies
Journal of Pragmatics, 2023
Swearing is exploited to release strong emotions, attack the interlocutor's face and build interpersonal solidarity, both in spontaneous interactions and in film. In audiovisual translation, it tends to be toned down or omitted, with research mostly explaining neutralisation as censorship-driven and treating the translation of taboo language as an internally-undifferentiated, arbitrary procedure. In the present corpus-based study we move away from the external, socio-cultural motivations for loss to assess whether specific pragmatic, structural-functional and textual dimensions of swearing account for preferred translational strategies and impact the translational outcomes. All occurrences of F-words in a parallel corpus of Anglophone films and their Italian translations are examined in their bilingual concordances at the utterance level and in the wider multimodal context. The quantitative and qualitative analyses outline the interaction between structural-functional patterns and pragmatic functions with reference to the translation strategies of full translation, mitigation, de-swearing and omission. The findings unveil coherence in Italian translators' preferences for pragmatically-motivated cross-linguistically viable language patterns which foreground the heightened emotional charge and the abusive dimensions of taboo words, thus pointing to a principled approach to translational solutions which boost the conflictuality intrinsic to film.
2016
Offensive and taboo exchanges are very recurrent in Quentin Tarantino's films, whose screenplays are full of characters who swear, curse and make ample use of taboo terms. The way subtitlers deal with such terms can cause a greater impact on the audience than oral speech . This paper aims to provide some insights, from a Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) approach, into the subtitling of offensive and taboo language into Spanish by examining Tarantino's first blockbuster, Reservoir Dogs (1992), and making use of a multistrategy design, which enhances triangulation . The ultimate goal is to shed some light on the way this film has been subtitled in Spain, by assessing whether the dialogue exchanges have been rendered in the subtitles in a close way to the source text or, by contrast, some type of censorship (i.e. ideological manipulation) may have taken place. key words: Interlingual subtitling, offensive and taboo language, translation strategies, multi-strategy design, ideological manipulation.
Subtitling Tarantino’s offensive and taboo dialogue exchanges into european spanish: the case of Pulp Fiction, 2015
Resumen: La manera en la que el lenguaje ofensivo y tabú se subtitula representa una práctica delicada y polémica pues este lenguaje funciona como vehículo léxico que aporta información sobre la personalidad, clase social y entorno de los personajes, pudiendo provocar una reacción fuerte en la audiencia . Se podría decir que la omisión de términos ofensivos y tabú implica la pérdida de la función comunicativa de los mismos. Partiendo de un enfoque basado en los Estudios Descriptivos de Traducción, los objetivos de este artículo se centran en arrojar luz sobre la forma en la que el filme Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) se subtituló a español europeo, explorando así pues: (1) las estrategias traductológicas empleadas por el subtitulador; (2) la manera en la que los diálogos ofensivos/tabú fueron transferidos a la pantalla; (3) la posible influencia técnica de aquellos casos en los que la carga ofensiva y tabú queda neutralizada u omitida.
The Rendering of Foul Language in Spanish-English Subtitling: The Case of El Vecino
Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura
Audiovisual translation into English is recently gaining importance as the material produced in other languages is now increasingly crossing borders thanks to the internet. This article explores foul language, deemed one of the most problematic aspects of subtitling. The aim is to elucidate how this is normally subtitled into English. Drawing on a corpus of swearwords from Netflix Spanish comedy series El Vecino (Vigalondo, 2019‒2021), this paper examines the frequency of use of different translation techniques and the reasons behind the omission of certain instances of foul language. Results show that, while omitting swearwords is the second most common scenario, the most frequent one is transferring the offensive load of the original expression, with roughly 70 % of instances making it into the target product. As for factors influencing this decision, it was observed that overall swearwords are omitted not because they are offensive, but primarily because of their low narrative va...
Types and Functions of Linguistic Taboos in Iranian Movies
2020
The present study explored the linguistic taboos in the Iranian cinema. Twenty Iranian movies in a period of twenty years—1998 to 2018—comprised the main corpus of this study. The descriptive method was used in this sociolinguistic study to describe the conditions in the Iranian movies. To answer the research questions and analyze the data obtained on the types of taboo words, the framework provided by Andersson and Trudgill (1990) was first modified slightly and then applied to this research. All the three types of categories presented by Andersson and Trudgill, i.e., sex and bodily functions, sanctity, and animals with the absence of sex type were used in this research. Besides, the traces of five other types of death, morality, physical/mental problems, relatives, and unpleasant concepts were also found in the Iranian cinema. Moreover, in order to study the functions of the taboo words, a revised classification developed by Wardhaugh (2006) was utilized. Based on thei findings, a...
WHEN SPEECH BECOMES A HALLMARK: THE TRANSLATION OF ALMODÓVAR FILMS INTO POLISH
Publication: (Jankowska, Anna and Agnieszka Szarkowska (Eds). New Points of View on Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility. Special Issue of New Trends in Translation Studies, vol.15. Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 31-46. Abstract The identification of a personal, genuine style in the work of the director Pedro Almodóvar provides the tone of speech with a semantic function, and becomes recognizable in the target culture while determining the viewer’s expectations of the translation. Linguistic variation and specific registers, particularly strong and sexually-derived language, join to the content of the narrated story and help to transmit the style and intention of the Spanish filmmaker. The context it is received in also has an impact in the final configuration of the target text and marks the conditions for the translation. Audience expectations for a film are often generated by the marketing campaign behind it. In this sense, the background of insolence, provocation and transgression surrounding the figure of Almodóvar in Poland has some bearing on the idea that Polish audience have of his films. The viewer’s expectations will largely dictate how they react to strong language. In other words, audiences are more tolerant of strong language if they can understand the reason for its usage. According to this idea, this paper will try to validate or refute the hypothesis that the presence of an identifiable style in the work of Almodóvar influences the priorities of the translation and favours a target text closer to the original, showing more tolerance with expletives and obscenities, while helping to maintain the spirit of the original and retaining the sensation of authenticity. Key words: Almodóvar, Poland, transgression, strong language, faithfulness, expectations.
Swearing and Translation: A Study of the insults in the filims of Quentin Tarantino
2011
This thesis analyses the insults in Quentin Tarantino’s films and their translation into Spanish. The insults in Tarantino’s films can be considered very interesting from a social point of view as I have gradually developed during this research. First, I have highlighted the possible problems when translating insults into Spanish. Secondly, I have provided the reader with specific examples in English of the insults collected from the seven films I have analysed [Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill vol. I and II, Death Proof and Inglorious Basterds]. Finally, my intention was to demonstrate that the level of swearing in Spanish was inferior by showing the translation of these insults in Spanish as they appeared in the films. Then, I divided my work into two sections, the first one being theoretical: Quentin Tarantino (chapter 1); Characterization of Swearwords (chapter 2); and Translation Studies: The Singularity of Audiovisual Translation (chapter 3), w...