Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation 9781783099375

Citation preview

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

Full details of all our publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation Edited by Jorge Díaz Cintas and Kristijan Nikolić

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit

DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/DIAZ9368 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Names: Díaz Cintas, Jorge, editor. | Nikolić, Kristijan, 1975- editor. Title: Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation/Edited by Jorge Díaz Cintas and Kristijan Nikolić. Description: Bristol; Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Multilingual Matters, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017035523| ISBN 9781783099368 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783099382 (epub) | ISBN 9781783099399 (Kindle) Subjects: LCSH: Dubbing of motion pictures. | Dubbing of television programs. | Motion pictures–Titling. | Television programs–Titling. | Translating and interpreting–Social aspects. Classification: LCC P306.93 .F37 2018 | DDC 418/.03791–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017035523 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-936-8 (hbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA. Copyright © 2018 Jorge Díaz Cintas, Kristijan Nikolić and the authors of individual chapters. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services. Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Books Group Ltd. Printed and bound in the US by Edwards Brothers Malloy, Inc.

Contents

Acknowledgements

vii

Contributors

ix

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation Jorge Díaz Cintas and Kristijan Nikolić

1

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT 1

Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood Vincenza Minutella

17

2

How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers Marina Manfredi

31

3

Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World Sattar Izwaini

47

Part 2: Reception and Process 4

Do Shot Changes Really Induce the Rereading of Subtitles? Agnieszka Szarkowska, Izabela Krejtz and Krzysztof Krejtz

61

5

Watching Translated Audiovisuals: Does Age Really Matter? Elisa Perego

80

6

Content Selection and Presentation: Considerations in Interlingual Subtitling Inquiry Mikołaj Deckert

v

93

vi

7

Contents

Eye Tracking and the Process of Dubbing Translation Kristian Tangsgaard Hvelplund

110

Part 3: The Professional Environment 8

Audio Description Crisis Points: The Idea of Common European Audio Description Guidelines Revisited Iwona Mazur

127

9

Mapping Subtitling Competence: An Empirical Study of Companies’ Needs and Expectations Agnese Morettini

141

10 Developing Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard-of-Hearing in Turkey Ali Gürkan and Jorge Díaz Cintas

173

Part 4: The Pedagogical Value of AVT 11 The ARDELE Project: Audio Description as a Didactic Tool to Improve (Meta)linguistic Competence in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning Ana Ibáñez Moreno and Anna Vermeulen 12 Using Audiovisual Translation to Track Language Planning Developments: Flemish Public Broadcasting Subtitles from 1995 to 2012 Reglindis De Ridder and Eithne O’Connell Index

195

212

225

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all those who have worked on the production of this book. Without the contributors who have shared their knowledge with us, this book would not have come to life, and we are thankful for their decision to choose our publication for sharing their work with the world. A special thanks goes to all our peer reviewers, for always being available and willing to read and reread the published articles and those that did not make it in the end: Rocío Baños Piñero, Charlotte Bosseaux, Lindsay Bywood, Mary Carroll, Alice Casarini, Frederic Chaume, Lucile Desblache, Sarah Eardley-Weaver, Federico Federici, Rosario Garnemark, Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin, Jan-Louis Kruger, Juan José Martínez Sierra, Anna Matamala, Raquel Merino, Josélia Neves, Minako O’Hagan, Pilar Orero, Jan Pedersen, Irene Ranzato, Aline Remael, Mandana Taban, Noa Talaván and Christopher Taylor. We are also grateful to our friends and colleagues in the audiovisual translation world, for their wisdom, support, encouragement and patience. This research is part of the research project PluriTAV, ref. FFI201674853-P (2017-2019), financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Programa Proyectos I+D Excelencia). Jorge Díaz Cintas Kristijan Nikolić

vii

Contributors

Mikołaj Deckert ([email protected]) works as Assistant Professor in the Department of Translation Studies, University of Łódź, Poland. His research is in translation, language and cognition, media discourse, linguistic pragmatics, as well as corpus linguistics. He is the author of Meaning in Subtitling: Toward a Contrastive Cognitive Semantic Model and a co-editor of volumes on translation didactics as well as AVT. He has co-organised a number of international conferences and worked on the research projects ‘CLARIN: Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure’, ‘Perception of Time as a Linguistic Category’, ‘Transformations in Reality Perception and the Language of New Media’, ‘Time In MEntaL activitY: Theoretical, Behavioral, Bioimaging, and Clinical Perspectives (TIMELY)’, as well as ‘Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies’. Reglindis De Ridder ([email protected]) has a PhD from Dublin City University. Her thesis investigated the language planning scope of AVT, using as a case study the use of Belgian Dutch and marked Netherlandic Dutch in subtitles broadcast by the Flemish public service broadcaster in Belgium, VRT. Jorge Díaz Cintas ([email protected]) is Professor in Translation Studies at the Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS) of University College London, UK. He is the author of numerous articles, special issues and books on audiovisual translation. He is one of the directors of the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation and serves as chief editor of the Peter Lang series New Trends in Translation Studies. He is a member of the international research group TransMedia and the EU LIND (Language Industry) Expert Group. He is a recipient of the Jan Ivarsson Award (2014) and the Xènia Martínez Award (2105) for invaluable services to the field of audiovisual translation. Ali Gürkan ([email protected]) graduated from Akdeniz University in Antalya, Turkey, with a degree in English language teaching and worked as an English language instructor for two years at Selçuk University. He has

ix

x

Contributors

an MSc in Scientific, Technical and Medical Translation with Translation Technology from Imperial College London, with a dissertation on audiovisual translation and is currently conducting doctoral research at University College London on the provision of subtitles for the deaf and the hard-ofhearing in Turkey. Kristian Tangsgaard Hvelplund ([email protected]) is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He holds a PhD in translation from the Copenhagen Business School and has worked as a freelance dubbing translator since 2004. His research interests include translation and cognition, in particular the cognitive processes involved in translation, and the use of experimental methods such as eye tracking and key logging to describe and model the translation process. Sattar Izwaini ([email protected]) earned his PhD in translation studies from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). He is an Assistant Professor at the American University of Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, where he acted as the coordinator of the MA program in translation 2011–2014. He has taught languages, linguistics and translation at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the UK and the Arab world. His research interests include corpus-based translation studies, audiovisual translation, contrastive linguistics and translation, terminology, localisation and machine translation. Izabela Krejtz ([email protected]), PhD, works as an Associate Professor at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Poland. She is a co-founder of the Eyetracking Research Center at USSH. Her research interests include neurocognitive and positive psychology and her applied work focuses on pro-positive training of attention control, eye-movements studies in the perception of audiovisual material and emotions regulation. Krzysztof Krejtz ([email protected]), PhD, is a social and cognitive psychologist. He is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of Social Science and Humanities and head of the Interactive Technologies Laboratory at the National Information Processing Institute at Warsaw, Poland. His research interests include visual attention, eye tracking, human–computer interaction, psychological and social aspects of the internet, and social science methodology. He is the author of many publications concerning different aspects of human social life on the internet and in the context of new media. He is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery and the Polish Social Psychology Association.

Contributors

xi

Marina Manfredi ([email protected]) is a Lecturer in English Language and Translation at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her main research interests lie in the field of translation studies and include systemic functional linguistics and translation, translation teaching, postcolonial translation studies, translation and world Englishes (especially Indian English). She has contributed to national and international conferences on these topics and has published various articles and two books. She has also translated Indian English novels and short stories for different Italian publishers. Her current research mainly concerns the translation of popular science, business and economics texts and audiovisual translation. Iwona Mazur ([email protected]) is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Translation Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Her research focuses on audio description and she has participated in numerous Polish and international research projects, including ADVERBA, Digital Television for All Project and ADLAB. She serves as an executive board member of the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation. Vincenza Minutella ([email protected]) holds a PhD in translation studies from the University of Warwick, UK. She is a Researcher in English language and translation at the University of Torino, Italy. She has conducted research in theatre translation, film adaptation, Shakespeare translation and audiovisual translation. Her current research focuses on the dubbing and subtitling of multilingual films, on audiovisual texts for a young audience, on the translation of humour and on the influence of the English language on dubbed Italian. Ana Ibáñez Moreno ([email protected]) is a Lecturer at the Spanish National University of Distance Education, UNED, in Madrid, Spain. Her main area of research focuses on the teaching and learning of foreign languages and she has conducted research on topics like error analysis, the development of communicative strategies when learning Spanish and the use of audio description as a didactic tool in the classroom of Spanish as a foreign language. She is an active member of the Ghent-based GoLLD research group and the UNED-based ATLAS (Applying Technology to LanguageS) research group. Agnese Morettini ([email protected]) has a doctorate in audiovisual translation from the University of Macerata, Italy, with a thesis on subtitling didactics. She has taught and published about subtitling and translation. She is a member of the Italian Association of Translators and Interpreters (AITI) and currently works as a full-time freelance professional

xii

Contributors

translator and subtitler, collaborating with major international and national subtitling and translation companies as well as private clients. Kristijan Nikolić ([email protected]) is a Senior Lecturer and Research Associate in the English Department of the University of Zagreb, Croatia. He holds a PhD in translation studies from the University of Vienna. His research interests include audiovisual translation and cultural studies. He is the co-founder of the Croatian Association of Audiovisual Translators and a member of the executive board of ESIST. He also works as a freelance subtitler, and Honorary Research Associate at CenTraS, University College London. Eithne O’Connell ([email protected]) is a Senior Lecturer in translation at The Centre for Translation and Textual Studies of Dublin City University, Ireland. Her research interests include translation studies, audiovisual translation and minority languages, especially Irish language, literary translation and translation for children. Elisa Perego ([email protected]) has a PhD in Linguistics and works as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Trieste, Italy, where she teaches English linguistics and audiovisual translation. Her research interests involve the reception of dubbing, subtitling and audio description as well as the use of eye tracking methodology in audiovisual translation research. She has participated in European and national projects on audiovisual translation, such as ADLAB (Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind). She is the co-author of a monograph on audiovisual translation (2012, Carocci), an edited volume on audio description for the blind (2014, EUT), a co-edited volume on translating humour (2014, Peter Lang) and one on subtitling (2015, Cambridge Scholars). Agnieszka Szarkowska ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Applied Linguistics of the University of Warsaw, Poland and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS), University College London, with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship funded from the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme (2016–2018). She is the founder and head of the Audiovisual Translation Lab (AVT Lab, www.avt.ils.uw.edu.pl) and specialises in audiovisual translation, especially subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing and audio description. She is a member of European Association for Studies in Screen Translation, the European Society for Translation Studies and an honorary member of the Polish Audiovisual Translators Association.

Contributors

xiii

Anna Vermeulen ([email protected]) is Associate Professor at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication of Ghent University, Belgium, where she teaches Spanish structures, translation Spanish-Dutch and audiovisual translation. Her main areas of research and publications include translation strategies and techniques, pragmatic aspects and linguistic variation in AVT, and the use of audiovisual translation as a didactic tool in foreign language teaching and learning. She is an active member of the Ghent-based GoLLD (Ghent on Language Learning and Didactics) research group and the UNED-based ATLAS research group.

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation It is fair to say that in today’s society we have become increasingly dependent on the affordability offered by digital technology to communicate with our peers and, consequently, exchanges have become more audiovisual than ever before and a multitude of screens have taken over the private and public spaces. The transition from the paper page to the digital page has brought about a number of substantial changes that have had a great impact not only on the way in which information and messages are transmitted but also on the role played by users and consumers in this new and dynamic environment. The transmission of information through productions that combine the audio and the visual planes has gained enormous ground in recent decades and has relegated other more traditional, conventional media such as books, journals or newspapers. After the invention of cinema at the end of the 19th century and the advent of television in the 1950s, the development of the internet in the 1990s can be hailed as one of the most significant milestones in human (audiovisual) communication. Indeed, the web and social media have had a transformative impact on the way in which we interact and communicate with each other, mainly due to the attractiveness of the audiovisual format in which audio and visuals come together in a symbiotic whole, thus enhancing the semiotic possibilities of the composite message and its potential to improve comprehension and retention. All communication acts are based on the production, transmission and reception of information among the various participants in the process. Although achieving successful communication is always a more complex goal than it may seem at first sight, even when the interlocutors are meant to be sharing the same language, the situation becomes ever more challenging when different languages are spoken. Interpreting and translation have existed from time immemorial as human activities aimed at facilitating understanding by bringing down linguistic and cultural barriers. In this sense, translation practices have run parallel to the history of communication and have experienced a similar evolution in recent decades, gradually shifting from the printed paper to the more dynamic, digital screen. It goes without saying that the recent burgeoning in audiovisual communication, especially since the entrenchment in society of digital technology in the 1990s, has triggered a similar boom in the practice of audiovisual translation (AVT) that can only continue to expand and flourish in the foreseeable

1

2

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

future. In this social process of audiovisualisation-cum-internetisation, translation activity has had to morph and embrace new translational ways of dealing with the original audiovisual message – such as subtitling, dubbing, voiceover or narration – and to cater for the needs of a new and wider audience that also includes the sensory impaired, for whom targeted professional AVT practices have been fast developing: subtitling for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing (SDH), respeaking and audio description (AD) for the blind and the partially sighted. Inclusion in the form of accessibility to audiovisual media for all has become an important debate in many countries around the globe, featuring prominently in legislation, academic exchanges and broadcasters’ output. As government regulators impose new rules and regulations on broadcasters and other distributors regarding access services to audiovisual media, the various stakeholders in the field are joining efforts to conduct research that can inform the professional world by highlighting best practices and approaches. The societal influence of AVT has expanded its remit both in terms of the number of people that it reaches as well as the nature of the programmes that are translated. Indeed, millions of us encounter translation on screen on a regular basis and, if AVT was initially a commercial practice to boost the international distribution of feature films, the situation has changed radically and the nature of the audiovisual productions that are translated nowadays is virtually limitless, whether for ludic or instructional purposes: films, TV series, animation and cartoons, documentaries, cookery programmes, news, edutainment, commercials, sports programmes, educational lectures and corporate videos to name but a few. Even newspapers, until not so long ago available only in print form, have gone through substantial changes in the last decade and now host videos on their websites that are usually translated with subtitles when language transfer is required and, in their print publications, they direct users to the relevant URL address, where readers can watch those videos. The old discrete distinction between the roles of producers and consumers has also become somewhat blurred with the coinage of the neologism prosumer, a direct result of the new potentiality offered by social media and the digital world in general. In addition to reading and consuming others’ programmes, netizens are frequently encouraged to become producers themselves and to create their own user-generated content that can be easily assembled with freely available video editing suites installed on their computers, smartphones or tablets; uploaded to any of the numerous sharing platforms that populate the world wide web; and distributed throughout the globe in an instant. From its very beginnings, AVT has been closely linked to technological developments (Díaz Cintas, 2015). The analogue signal has been superseded by digital technology, and the VHS tape disappeared many years ago, giving way to the then revolutionary DVD, which, in turn, is being phased out and taken over by streaming, an alternative to the purchasing of material media

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

3

formats or to the downloading of them onto hard drives. The way in which we consume audiovisual productions has also altered significantly, from the early large public spaces represented by the cinema theatres, to the family experience of watching the television in the privacy of the living room, to the more individualistic approach of binge watching our favourite programmes in front of our personal computer, tablet or smartphone. Instead of sitting with the rest of the family after lunch or dinner and watching primetime television, today’s viewers tend to be more independent and impatient when it comes to their watching habits and expectations and want to be able to enjoy their preferred programmes whenever they choose, including on the go, and on any of the various devices they possess. Video-on-demand (VOD) services are a commercial response to try and meet the needs of this new breed of viewer by allowing them to watch what they want, when they want and in the quantities that they want. All this, of course, has been made possible thanks to the developments in technology, the rise of the internet, which continues to penetrate even the most remote corners of the world, and the significant increase in transmission speeds enabled by broadband. As an illustration, and in addition to guaranteeing free public wi-fi in all member states, one of the objectives of the European Union in the short term is to enable 5G, the next telecommunications standards that would allow the streaming of high-definition media with mobile devices, thus boosting easier and greater access to audiovisual media in various formats. To a large extent, AVT has been at the mercy of the twists and turns of technology and it is thanks to the instrumental role played by technology that subtitles can today be successfully produced live with minimal latency, that subtitlers can work in cloud-based environments, usually from the comfort of their own home, that subtitlers’ productivity has been enhanced thanks to the development of user-friendly software that enables professionals to work at a faster pace than before, and that audio-described content for the blind and subtitles for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing have become a common occurrence on our screens. Research on the way in which technology is used in AVT and on its potential to automatise processes and outputs, such as machine translation applied to subtitling (Bywood et al., 2017), is becoming more popular and mainstream in AVT. In view of these developments, as argued by O’Hagan (2016), one of the main challenges faced by translation scholars is to be able to find an appropriate theoretical framework that would allow a critical examination of the significant role that technology has on translation output; a task that is proving surprisingly elusive in our discipline. This flurry of activity observed in the media and the technology industries has had the positive knock-on effect of raising the visibility and status of AVT at the academic level, as attested by the exponential growth in the number of research projects, publications, conferences and undergraduate/ postgraduate courses that have developed around the world in a relatively

4

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

short period of time. The traditional focus of the pioneering scholarly studies conducted in the field of AVT tended to be biased towards the analysis of the role played by language, the challenges encountered when carrying out linguistic transfer and the translational strategies activated by translators to overcome them. With the passing of the years, the scope of the research has widened considerably to encompass many other aspects that directly impinge on the actual transfer that takes place. The study of the way in which cultural values pertaining to the source culture are dealt with in their travel to the target culture as well as the idiosyncrasies that characterise the professional practice of the various AVT modes are two areas that have featured prominently in some of the past publications and are also examined in various studies showcased in this collective volume, which take as their subject matter the representation of the Other through the translation prism, the impact of censorial forces on the subtitling of sensitive issues, the search for appropriate guidelines that can guarantee high-quality standards in AD and in SDH and the needs and expectations of multi-language vendors working in AVT when recruiting new translation professionals. Studies centred on more traditional activities such as subtitling and dubbing cohabit these days with investigations that help to widen the remit of AVT to encompass the area of media accessibility and prefer to shift their focus from the textual niceties of the original to the potential effects that the ensuing translation has on viewers. In this regard, AVT is a prime example of a research area markedly interdisciplinary and increasingly willing to rely on technology and statistical analysis to interrogate the data under scrutiny. As two relatively dormant and ignored areas in AVT, reception studies and cognitive processes have become pivotal in recent academic exchanges and it may be argued that the viewer, or end user, has to a large extent become the focal point of the study of AVT and media accessibility. In this respect, it can be said that a qualitative shift has taken place, moving away from academic debates that focused primarily on the linguistic makeup of the audiovisual source and target texts to studies in which the receptor of the text becomes the central point of interest. As a catalyst of this change, experimental research has come to be one of the relatively recent developments taking place in AVT studies, and the various studies presented in this book that are based on empirical inquiry of this nature are a testimony to this fresh trend. Academics working in AVT are no longer content with describing a given state of affairs or taking for granted certain inherited premises that have been passed on unchallenged in the available literature. Rather, by exploiting psychometric methodologies and by embracing technologies and statistical data analysis tools available to them, AVT scholars are eager these days to test the validity of their theories experimentally, to unravel the cognitive effort implicit in the translational process or to describe the effects that AVT practices have on the various heterogeneous groups that make up the audience, on translators-to-be and

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

5

on professionals already working in the field. Of particular note is the application of physiological instruments such as eye trackers to the experimental investigation of AVT (Perego, 2012). These devices, which measure eye positions and eye movement, and are common currency in research fields like advertising and medical sciences, have provided scholars interested in AVT with the appropriate methodology to move away from speculation to concrete observation of subjects’ reactions and data-based research. Traditionally, reception studies have been avoided in AVT as they were considered to be too complex in their implementation, costly and lengthy. In addition, the right technology to conduct experimental research was not really available and the expertise was lacking on the part of the pioneering AVT researchers. Yet, there seems to be a growing consensus nowadays that reception studies are important for the sustainability of the discipline and for the strengthening of links between the industry and academia; a cooperation that in turn holds promise for the development and provision of better products for end users. The close collaboration between the industry and academia is an important one in AVT. The media industry is interested in knowing how viewers perceive their subtitled, dubbed, voicedover, respoken or audio-described audiovisual productions; technology companies working in the development of state-of-the-art subtitling software and cloud-based systems for AVT can also benefit from the results yielded by experimental research with professionals; and language service providers specialising in AVT can profit from the insights gained through reception research, which can help them to adapt their practices to new workflows, to update their style guides to cater for new audiences or to reconsider some of the traditionally accepted spatial and temporal considerations that have marked the translation and delivery of their audiovisual programmes. As previously stated, the research ecosystem in translation has changed quite substantially in recent years and eye tracking monitoring is now widely used in experimental research in AVT to gauge the attention paid by viewers to the various parts of the screen and the different visual components of the audiovisual production, in an attempt to gain a better understanding of their cognitive processes while watching the audiovisual programme, with or without subtitles. The potentiality of this tool is tested in two of the chapters included in the current volume in an effort to evaluate viewers’ perception and reaction when reading subtitles that cross over shot changes, and to examine the cognitive processes involved in the act of translating for dubbing. In addition to instruments like eye trackers, a wide array of other cognitive and evaluative measures such as questionnaires and interviews can also be used to conduct examinations centred on reception and process, as evidenced in two other chapters included in this book: one investigating specifically the response of older adults to dubbing and subtitling, and the other making recourse to cognitive linguistics to gain a more solid insight into the brain procedures at work when creating interlingual subtitles.

6

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

In addition to the already discussed benefits of eye tracking, potential still exists in our discipline to make full use of other biometric instruments that can help elucidate the reaction of the audience, such as galvanic skin response devices to measure participants’ levels of arousal, and webcams to record and conduct facial expression analysis. Electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiograms (ECG) also open up a wealth of possibilities. EEG is a neuroimaging technique that helps to assess brain activity associated with perception, cognitive behaviour and emotional processes by foregrounding the parts of the brain that are active while participants perform a task or are exposed to certain stimulus material. ECG, on the other hand, monitors heart activity in an attempt to track respondents’ physical state, their anxiety and stress levels, which in turn can provide helpful insights into cognitive-affective processes. Although the metaphor of the language barrier is a real one, whose ultimate instantiation is the breakdown of communication among speakers of different linguistic codes and cultural backgrounds, exposing viewers to audiovisual content that has been originally created in another language may still have the potential to stir these viewers’ interest in the source culture and language. Viewers of audiovisual productions in so-called subtitling countries will sometimes claim that they learned English, the main source language of audiovisual content in many countries, by watching films and TV programmes in the original language, and they tend to be credited with a higher command of foreign languages than their counterparts in dubbing countries. Intrigued by these assumptions, scholars have embarked on the exploration of the didactic potential offered by the various AVT modes when it comes to foreign language teaching and learning (Incalcaterra McLoughlin et al., 2011). The topic has been a fruitful one, with international projects like ClipFlair (Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing & Captioning of Clips, http://clipflair.net) and PluriTAV (Audiovisual Translation as a Tool for the Development of Multilingual Competences in the Classroom, http://citrans.uv.es/pluritav/?lang=en) having seen the light in recent years. The enthusiasm in this area is also shared by the authors of two of the chapters included in this book, that delve into the exploitation of AD as a didactic tool in the foreign language classroom and the role of subtitling in language planning, respectively. Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation offers an up-to-date survey of the present state of affairs in AVT, focusing on some of the current issues that shape this discipline and are generating increasing interest at professional, educational and scholarly levels. One of the main aims of the book is to take the pulse of the changes taking place in this thriving field, by concentrating not only on current projects and research being carried out in AVT but also on the professional practice as conducted in a wide range of contexts and language combinations. In order to establish the groundwork from which different branches and approaches have recently sprung up, the

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

7

chapters have been carefully selected to cover a wide array of topics from the more traditional subtitling and dubbing to media accessibility practices like SDH and AD for the blind and the visually impaired. To offer as complete a picture as possible, various media and contexts are also considered by the authors, including television, DVD, internet and cinema. The collection of chapters brings together a group of scholars and academics of proven international reputation, who have been working in this field for many years in countries such as Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the United Arab Emirates. In an accessible and engaging style, the 12 contributions to the subject contained in this volume discuss theoretical issues in close relation to real translation problems and empirical data, providing at the same time useful and practical insights into the personalised input that translators inevitably give to their work. Special attention is also paid to the working methodologies currently in place and to the research tools currently used. The book is divided into four distinctive parts organised around discrete thematic fields. Part 1 contains three chapters and focuses on the study of language and culture in AVT, while reception and process studies are the main threads structuring the second part of this book, which is made up of four chapters. The three chapters included in the third part adopt a more professional angle and bring to the fore important considerations that characterise the working environment of this potent industry. In the fourth and last part, two chapters concentrate on the potential offered by AVT from a didactic and pedagogical perspective. Part 1 of the book centres on the various challenges encountered by translators when dealing with the transfer of language and culture in audiovisual productions. The first contribution to open the book is the chapter written by Vincenza Minutella entitled ‘Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood’, in which she uses the Italian dubbed version of the Indian film My Name Is Khan as her case study. Co-produced with Hollywood in a clear attempt to bring Bollywood to the world, this multilingual film makes novel use of language to linguistically represent the bilingual identity of the Indian characters. By making use of textual sources – original screenplay, film dialogue, master English subtitle/spotting list, Italian translated dialogue and Italian dubbed version – as well as extratextual sources – interviews with the screenplay writer, the dubbing director and the dialogue writer – the chapter tries to unravel how language, cultural stereotypes and the actual film have been manipulated during the production, distribution and translation-adaptation-dubbing processes. The author’s interest lies in uncovering how US distributors and Italian dubbing professionals have dealt with the representation of the ethnic and religious identity of the various Indian characters portrayed in the film and, in doing so, she also unveils the processes of writing, rewriting, manipulation and domestication that the Indian movie has undergone before reaching its Italian audience.

8

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

Marina Manfredi’s contribution, ‘How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers’, explores a relatively new (sub-)genre in the field of AVT, namely multiethnic, multicultural situation comedies for a younger audience. In particular, it focuses on the Canadian sitcom How to Be Indie, which has gained wide international distribution and has been dubbed in different countries, including Italy, where the first season was broadcast on the satellite channel DeAKids as Essere Indie (2010). The author argues that in the absence of specific studies on the major issues raised by this kind of televisual product, a cross-disciplinary approach could prove useful, especially one that draws on subfields within translation studies, such as translation for children and postcolonial translation. After briefly illustrating the theoretical frames that might offer fruitful insights, a number of carefully selected examples focused mainly on culture-specific items are discussed, in order to identify the macro- and micro-strategies that have been activated in the Italian dubbed version of the sitcom to convey the multicultural identity of the characters as well as the humorous exchanges instantiated by diversity. The final aim of the contribution, despite its specific perspective, is the suggestion that theoretical reflections, rather than representing speculations for mere analytical purposes in a vacuum, could instead trigger a galvanising effect on researchers in AVT and translation studies, professionals, experts in related fields and teachers to understand the real needs of the end users of this type of audiovisual programme. In her concluding remarks, Manfredi makes a strong case in favour of the translational practice of dubbing, which can ultimately represent a powerful means of influencing young people, making them more accepting of diversity. In his chapter entitled ‘Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World’, Sattar Izwaini deals with the various cultural constraints and legal provisions that regulate the practices of translation and subtitling in the Arab world and that tend to act as conduits for censorship and manipulation. Although small differences in censorship levels can be observed throughout the various regions of the Arab world, attitudes towards the manipulation of subtitles tend to be rather uniform. Subtitling into Arabic is subject to cultural and legal constraints as well as institutional controls and self-censorship, and both national and foreign audiovisual productions undergo detailed linguistic scrutiny before they can be commercially released, in order to filter out any culturally problematic expressions that are perceived to go against prevalent sensitivities on matters such as religion, sex and politics. Based on a corpus of English-spoken audiovisual productions subtitled into Arabic, and focusing on three countries of different political, economic, social and cultural profiles – namely, Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates – the author discusses first the legislation in these countries and then examines a variety of illustrative examples that successfully reveal the way in which censorial forces manifest themselves at the textual level. Generalisation, substitution and deletion are the three

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

9

main translation strategies used by the subtitlers to deal with thorny issues, and their implementation results in the levelling out of the target text, register shift, incoherence and failure to convey the pragmatic meaning of the original. The second part of this book brings together four contributions, whose main objective is to shed light on the translation process as well as the reception of the audiovisual productions from the viewer’s perspective. The reception of subtitles is at the core of the contribution by Agnieszka Szarkowska, Izabela Krejtz and Krzysztof Krejtz, entitled ‘Do Shot Changes Really Induce the Rereading of Subtitles?’ In their chapter, the authors query a commonly upheld subtitling rule, frequently claimed in professional and academic circles, whereby a subtitle should not stay on screen over a shot change as this may trigger the rereading of the same subtitle. After reviewing the literature that is available on the subject and later conducting their own eye tracking experiment with a group of deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing participants, the authors conclude that although maintaining the subtitles over shot changes did not make the viewers in their study reread the subtitles, they did force them to alter their viewing patterns slightly, by inducing more gaze shifts between the subtitles and the image, thus interfering with the natural reading pattern. The debate about the virtues or otherwise of subtitling versus dubbing has been the subject of numerous publications, with plentiful arguments in favour or against each of these two approaches. In her chapter, ‘Watching Translated Audiovisuals: Does Age Really Matter?’, Elisa Perego makes a distinct departure from previous discussions and prefers to take a more analytical outlook on the topic, by conducting empirical research with a group of viewers, aimed at finding out more about the cognitive and evaluative consequences of watching dubbed vs. subtitled films at different ages. After presenting the main characteristics of the experiments, and focusing primarily on older adult viewers, the chapter discusses the general implications of watching translated audiovisual material at different ages and under different circumstances. The results show that, although the overall performance of older adults declines with both translation methods, age effects are not especially evident in a particular condition, whether dubbing or subtitling. The contribution finishes with a discussion of the most important implications of such empirically grounded findings, acknowledges some of the limitations encountered during the study and advances a set of new potential lines of research. Adopting a markedly cognitive angle in ‘Content Selection and Presentation: Considerations in Interlingual Subtitling Inquiry’, Mikołaj Deckert outlines and refines a descriptive model that would allow for conducting systematic analyses of how meaning is originally constructed in the source text and then reconstructed in the subtitling process. The model draws upon cognitive linguistics, a conglomerate of theories dating back to

10

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

the 1970s, as a response to what could be fairly generally labelled as formal approaches, and pays special attention to the notions of conceptual content, construal and categorisation to demonstrate how subtitling shifts resulting from the application of (locally-based) procedures and (globally-oriented) strategies can be accounted for in a structured, methodologically principled manner. For the author, cognitive linguistics is a sensitive and powerful theoretical framework that can be used to yield convincing accounts of meaning construction in subtitling, without losing sight of the semiotic nature of the source material. As advanced in the title, ‘Eye Tracking and the Process of Dubbing Translation’, Kristian Tangsgaard Hvelplund’s contribution reports on an eye tracking experiment focused on the process of translating for dubbing, during which translators had their eye movements monitored and recorded while they translated an excerpt of an animated television show from English into Danish. The aim of the study is to explore the production aspect of dubbing translation and to investigate the cognitive processes underlying the complex task of dubbing, by measuring fixation duration, visual transitions and pupil size in an attempt to account for the translators’ distribution of attention, their cognitive effort during the translation process as well as the processing flow in dubbing translation. The author finds that although the target text manuscript attracts the majority of visual attention during dubbing translation, the longer fixations have to do, in part, with the mechanical operation of typing; and that working with audiovisual material is in fact more cognitively demanding than any other part of dubbing as pupil sizes were considerably larger when the translators worked with the film sequence. The results point to the fact that working with aural and visual cues in addition to textual information in the form of dialogue scripts is likely to contribute to the increased effort on the translators’ cognitive systems. The third part of this volume contains three contributions discussing the professional environment that characterises the practice of AVT in different countries. In the first of these contributions, ‘Audio Description Crisis Points: The Idea of Common European Audio Description Guidelines Revisited’, Iwona Mazur reports on the ADLAB project, an initiative financed by the European Union under the Lifelong Learning Programme to foster the training of audio describers and to design guidelines for the practice of AD at international level. Given a number of considerations, such as current AD practices, audience preferences in individual countries, interlingual and intercultural disparities, the various types of target audience or the fact that individual audiovisual products require unique solutions, the partners of the project propose to offer guidelines in the form of comprehensive AD strategies rather than standards or strict rules. To this end, the author coins and explains the notion of Audio Description Crisis Point, understood as an instance in the process of AD that is particularly challenging and thus

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

11

requires a conscious decision on the part of the audio describer on how to tackle it. For the scholar, the proper identification of these crisis points is a crucial task in the production of a reliable set of AD guidelines, insofar as they inform about the most important aspects that should be included therein. One of the most salient features of this chapter is the design of a taxonomy made up of 14 Audio Description Crisis Points that foregrounds the main challenges involved in the practice of this professional activity and that can be used to vertebrate the drafting of guidelines that take into due consideration important aspects such as the nature of the audiovisual text, the audience design and the actual purpose of the AD, among others. After briefly discussing the upsides of subtitling as one of the most used and suitable translational practices to make ever-increasing quantities of audiovisual materials accessible to foreign language speakers, the hearing impaired and the elderly, Agnese Morettini, in ‘Mapping Subtitling Competence: An Empirical Study of Companies’ Needs and Expectations’, embarks on an empirical incursion on the various skills and competences that are expected of professional subtitlers. Her study explores subtitling competence from an experiential perspective and has the benefit of taking the standpoint of market stakeholders into consideration. Working within the framework of qualitative content analysis, the scholar scrutinises a corpus of 48 job descriptions for subtitling and captioning jobs that have been drafted by subtitling companies worldwide, and draws valuable findings that are most significant from a didactic perspective as they can inform curriculum design and enhance students’ future employability prospects. The final chapter in this third part, entitled ‘Developing Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard-of-Hearing in Turkey’, is authored by Ali Gürkan and Jorge Díaz Cintas and examines the current state of affairs of SDH in Turkey, a fast-evolving information society. The contribution highlights the fact that one of the objectives of the Turkish government is to achieve full participation of all its citizens in this process, for which the management of information is at the base of new developments, policies and plans. And yet, accessibility to the media, especially in the case of TV, which tends to be the main or only source of information for most people with sensory disabilities, is one of the most neglected areas in the country. To appreciate the current situation, the authors look into the profile of members of the hearing impaired community as well as into the legislation that already exists nationwide on accessibility to information for people with sensory impairments. Pivotal to their argumentation is the understanding of SDH as an essential service in facilitating and guaranteeing full access to information for hearing impaired people and their proposal of a battery of suggestions aimed at enhancing the provision of this assistive service in a country like Turkey. The fourth and last part of this collective book explores the pedagogical value of AVT and consists of two contributions. In their chapter, under

12

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

the title ‘The ARDELE Project: Audio Description as a Didactic Tool to Improve (Meta)linguistic Competence in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning’, Ana Ibáñez Moreno and Anna Vermeulen present the ARDELE project, whose main objective is to explore the didactic potential that the use of AD may have in the classroom of Spanish as a foreign language for Dutch-speaking Belgian students. Adopting a task-based approach, the two scholars design and test several didactic units based on the AD of various clips taken from a film in Spanish and another in Dutch. Their controlled observation, together with the feedback provided by participants in various tests and questionnaires, allows them to conclude that these didactic units do indeed act as motivating and useful activities that enhance the awareness of the importance of idiomatic competence, considered by some linguists to be one of the most challenging skills for foreign language learners to apprehend. The results also show that AD-based activities boost metacognitive strategies, thereby increasing students’ insight into their own learning process. The last contribution, entitled ‘Using Audiovisual Translation to Track Language Planning Developments: Flemish Public Broadcasting Subtitles from 1995 to 2012’, is co-authored by Reglindis De Ridder and Eithne O’Connell, who explore how AVT studies, lexicography and corpus linguistics can make a contribution to the field of sociolinguistics, by focusing on Dutch as one of the languages used in the subtitles commercialised in Belgium. Against the backdrop of the transnational Dutch publishing industry’s established practice of consistently avoiding Belgian Dutch features, the authors of this chapter embark on a diachronic study focused on the subtitling carried out by the Flemish public service broadcaster in Belgium between 1995 and 2012, with the objective of establishing whether, and if so, to what extent, the broadcaster makes use of marked Belgian Dutch lexical items in its subtitles, thus providing an important counterbalance to published Dutch texts and contributing to the development of a richer, more inclusive Dutch written standard. Using corpus linguistics techniques, their research yields concrete new data as the authors are able to track trends relating to the use of the Belgian variety of Dutch in interlingual subtitles of fiction programmes aired by the Flemish public service broadcaster, and it demonstrates how productive links can be forged between subtitling and corpus linguistics, on the one hand, and sociolinguistics (language planning and minority media studies), on the other. Despite its relative youth in scholarly debates, AVT has certainly come of age academically in recent years and can be considered a consolidated area of research within the broader area of Translation Studies. The blossoming of AVT as a discipline is accompanied by an evolution in key topics and debates and, if early studies on the field used to concentrate on the distinctiveness and autonomy of AVT, interdisciplinarity and cross-fertilisation are nowadays harbinger of a distinct way forward. The traditional focus of

Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation

13

the pioneering scholarly studies conducted in the field of AVT tended to be biased in favour of the analysis of the role played by language, the challenges encountered when carrying out the linguistic transfer and the translational strategies activated by the translators to overcome them. With the passing of the years, the scope of the research has widened considerably to encompass many other aspects that directly impinge on the transfer that takes place during AVT. This selective compilation of 12 contributions offers a rounded vision of some of the ways in which AVT can be approached from an academic, professional and educational point of view. The studies herein provide a stimulating and thought-provoking account of some of the most representative themes that are currently being researched in the field of AVT, while also pointing to new directions of potential research, such as the cognitive approaches discussed above. A conscious effort has been made not only to cover cultural and linguistic approaches to traditional domains of AVT studies, but also to look into lesser-known areas of research that are attracting substantial interest from various stakeholders and gradually becoming part of the remit of AVT. In this respect, the chapters contained in this volume tackle the field of AVT from a plural, comprehensive and most up-to-date perspective, speaking of a rich and complex academic subject in the making, broadening our existing knowledge on AVT, reflecting the many crossroads and junctions it presently faces and adumbrating some of the issues that will become topical in the near future in this fascinating and flourishing discipline. Jorge Díaz Cintas and Kristijan Nikolić

References Bywood, L., Georgakopoulou, P. and Etchegoyhen, T. (2017) Embracing the threat: Machine translation as a solution for subtitling. Perspectives. http://dx.doi.org/10.1 080/0907676X.2017.1291695. Díaz Cintas, J. (2015) Technological strides in subtitling. In S-W. Chan (ed.) Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Technology (pp. 632–643). London: Routledge. Incalcaterra McLoughlin, L., Biscio, M. and Ní Mhainnín, M.A. (eds) (2011) Audiovisual Translation – Subtitles and Subtitling: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Peter Lang. O’Hagan, M. (2016) Massively open translation: Unpacking the relationship between technology and translation in the 21st century. International Journal of Communication 10, 929–946. Perego, E. (ed.) (2012) Eye Tracking in Audiovisual Translation. Rome: Aracne.

Part 1 Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

1 Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood Vincenza Minutella

Introduction: Multilingual Films and Audiovisual Translation The translation of multilingual films is a growing area of research within audiovisual translation (De Bonis, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c; De Higes Andino, 2009, 2014a, 2014b; Delabastita & Grutman, 2005; Dwyer, 2005; Federici, 2009; Heiss, 2004; Şerban & Meyelaerts, 2014). Several studies have analysed the Italian versions of multilingual films, in particular films dealing with migrant identity and describing the diasporic experience of South-Asian immigrants living in the UK or the US, where the speakers are often bilingual and tend to switch and mix languages (Antonucci, 2011; Bonsignori, 2011, 2012; Bonsignori & Bruti, 2014; Minutella, 2012a, 2012b; Monti, 2009, 2014; Russo, 2016). However, most of the research has focused on films made by diasporic, UK- or US-based directors such as Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) or Gurinder Chadha (Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice), or by British directors such as Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and Ken Loach (Ae Fond Kiss). A Western cinematic eye and aesthetics tend to filter the foreign elements in these films, and although they contain language contact and alternation, English is their main language since their primary audience is Western and international. On the other hand, the translation and reception of Indian Bollywood Hindi films is still under-researched, especially in the language combination Hindi–English–Italian, and very few studies have been devoted to ‘truly’ Indian films (Antonucci, 2011; Minutella, 2012b; Russo, 2016). However, since Indian films seem to be gaining in popularity both internationally and in Italy, the way in which they are translated deserves closer attention.

17

18

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

Aims and Methodology The aim of this chapter is to investigate how the multilingual Bollywood film My Name Is Khan (Karan Johar, 2010) has travelled from its Indian source culture to the Italian target culture. In particular, it examines language use in this Indian multilingual film and tries to understand how languages and the film itself are manipulated in the production, distribution and translation-adaptation-dubbing processes. In other words, My Name Is Khan is used as a case study to describe, in order to understand, the phenomena and agents involved in the process of translating this film for Italian-speaking audiences. The screenplay, the film dialogue, the master English subtitle/spotting list, the Italian dialogue and the Italian dubbed version are analysed. Moreover, we draw on interviews with the screenplay writer, the dubbing director and the dialogue writer. As a result, the chapter aims to shed some light on the production, translation, adaptation and distribution of this Indian film and on the constraints that are at play from a linguistic and cinematic perspective. In doing so, we also unveil the processes of writing, rewriting, manipulation and domestication that this Indian film has undergone before reaching its Italian audience. On a purely linguistic level, the chapter investigates the role of language(s) in representing the hybrid, bilingual identity of the Indian characters, and tries to understand how the Italian dubbing professionals have tackled the challenges posed by this film. We try to ascertain how the linguistic and cultural ‘otherness’ of the film as well as the ethnic and religious identity of the Indian characters have been tackled by the US distributors and by Italian dubbing professionals.

My Name Is Khan My Name Is Khan (MNIK, 2010) is an Indian Hindi film directed by Karan Johar – one of India’s most successful young directors and producers – starring Bollywood’s big stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. The screenplay was written by Shibani Bathija, with dialogues in Hindi and English by Bathija and Niranjan Yiengar, who was also the author of the song lyrics. MNIK was produced by Johar’s Dharma Productions, Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment and Fox Star Studios – a joint venture between Twentieth Century Fox and STAR India – and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. It is thus an Indian film co-produced with Hollywood, and it represents a successful attempt to take Bollywood to the world. As Jim Gianopulos, CEO of Twentieth Century Fox, explained in an interview, My Name Is Khan ‘is still the biggest Bollywood film around the world in history and we are very proud of that fact, […] we were able to take a film made in Bollywood with the greatest of talent and introduce that talent to more parts of the world’ (Ahuja, 2012: online). The film enjoyed considerable

Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood

19

international distribution and success: it was screened at the Berlin and Rome Film Festivals and it broke several box office records in India, the UK and the US, becoming one of India’s highest grossing films in both the domestic market and overseas (Mahmood & Mitra, 2011). My Name Is Khan follows the life of Rizvan Khan, an Indian Muslim affected by Asperger’s syndrome, from his youth in India to his migration to the multicultural US, where he lives with his brother Zakir and his sisterin-law Hasina. There, he works, gets married to a Hindu single mother, Mandira Rathod, and lives a happy successful life with her and her son Sameer until tragedy hits their family, when Sameer is killed by a group of teenagers during a racially motivated fight. To win Mandira’s love back, and interpreting her words literally, Rizvan embarks on an extraordinary journey across the US, as he must tell the President of the United States: ‘My name is Khan and I’m not a terrorist’. During this journey, he faces several obstacles, he is arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist, and finally he becomes a hero by reporting a group of Muslim extremists to the FBI and by helping the people of a village hit by a hurricane. MNIK may be seen to represent the diasporic experience of Asian Indians and Muslims in the US before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, since it portrays the change of attitude towards the Islamic community and South Asians and displays ethnic prejudice, fear and racist attacks. However, the film is also, and especially, the story of an unconventional hero, who overcomes a series of obstacles in order to regain the love of his life. It is a Bollywood drama and romance, a fairytale whose hero reminds us of Forrest Gump and Rain Man. This film is an example of Indian Middle Cinema (Aime, 2007; Antonucci, 2011; Restelli, 2010) because it addresses a number of serious topics and global issues – a behavioural syndrome, ethnic and religious prejudice, terrorism, inter-faith marriage – and it occupies a mid-position between a commercial, popular Bollywood masala movie and an Indian art film. It is also a combination of Indian and Western cinematic features. It contains elements typical of Bollywood films such as romance, drama, the expression of strong feelings, melodramatic and overtly sentimental scenes, the presence of music and song-and-dance numbers that describe feelings, the casting of famous actors as idealised heroes, the filming style with close-up shots of the protagonists and images of rain, and a lack of realism. The film also draws on features of Hollywood or European cinema in its narrative structure, the serious issues dealt with, and the fact that compared to Indian popular masala films it is more realistic in style and topics. My Name Is Khan can thus be seen as an example of ‘a new kind of cinema, a hybrid cultural product that fuses the language of Hollywood with the accent, slang, and emotions of India’ (Thussu, 2009: 107). In this sense, the film caters for a wider, international audience by addressing important global issues and using dialogues in Hindi, English and Hinglish (a mixture of Hindi and English).

20

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

Language Use in MNIK This section describes some aspects that are representative of the use of language(s) in this film, paying particular attention to language alternation, occurrences of code-switching (CS) and code-mixing (CM) – which are natural phenomena in the life of an Indian bilingual – as well as to the presence of borrowings. CS refers to the change of language within discourse among bilinguals (Gumperz, 1982: 59), while CM refers to intrasentential CS, that is, language alternation within a single sentence (Sridhar & Sridhar, 1980: 408–409). Borrowing takes place when foreign words are used in a recipient language. The languages spoken in My Name Is Khan are mainly Hindi and English, with the insertion of some lexical items borrowed from Arabic. The Indian characters speak Hindi in the scenes set in India, while they tend to speak English when they interact with non-Indians in the US. Firstgeneration non-resident Indians (NRIs) tend to communicate in Hindi, with some English mixed in and some CS, while second-generation NRIs speak a hybrid language – the mixed variety called Hinglish – and their colloquial speech often resorts to CS and CM. English is, however, their dominant language. In interactions between first- and second-generation NRIs, CS and CM appear to be the norm (Minutella, 2012b). In the film under analysis, CS and CM are used to specify the addressee, to reiterate a message, to establish closeness (through the use of the ‘we’ code, i.e. Hindi) or to express objectivisation and establish distance (through the use of the ‘they’ code, i.e. English). The characters often switch and mix languages according to the situation, the topic and the person in front of them, in ‘a constant negotiation of identities’ (Bhatia & Ritchie, 2004: 795), and language choice and alternation is a communicative strategy ‘as well as a projection of a bilingual’s identity’ (Jha, 1993: 246). This linguistic behaviour is in line with studies on language maintenance and change among Asian Indians in the US and in Europe (Sridhar, 2008) and on CS and CM in bilingual contexts (Gumperz, 1982; Romaine, 1989). The use of language in the film partly mirrors the speech of South Asian Indian bilinguals in different situations, as most exchanges seem to reflect the actual linguistic behaviour of Asian Indians both in India and abroad. Multilingualism fulfils many functions in films (De Bonis, 2014a), and in the case of MNIK it can be argued that its main purpose is to emphasise realism, by portraying the way Indian people speak and interact in their daily lives. Nonetheless, although the language spoken by the characters is quite realistic, film dialogue is ultimately fictional and is written with a specific audience in mind. An analysis of the film suggests that language choice and alternation is in some instances influenced by the intended audience. Multilingualism and CS appear to have an extra-diegetic, clarifying

Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood

21

function, since they seem to serve the purpose of communicating with the Indian (non-English-speaking) audience. In fact, important speeches, though addressed to US or non-Hindi-speaking characters, are predominantly uttered in Hindi or in Hindi-English CS in order to ensure the Indian audience’s comprehension of the message. An example is Rizvan’s speech about Sameer in the church of Wilhemina to an audience of African Americans and, although it would make more sense for him to address them in English, he speaks almost entirely in Hindi. Another example is a speech made by Rizvan’s sister-in-law Hasina, a psychology lecturer, to her American students. Her words about identity were originally shot in English and subsequently half-dubbed into Hindi for the benefit of the Indian audience. Having Hasina speak Hindi in this situational context is not realistic, but it is clearly due to the need to clarify her important words to the Indian audience. Language choice is thus at times influenced by the Indian, non-English-speaking viewers that the film is addressing, and key dialogues tend to be in Hindi, or are uttered in English and repeated in Hindi. This was confirmed by Bathija (personal communication), who explained that she writes in English, her first language, and uses Hindi when it comes naturally: However, since the vast majority of the audience are predominantly vernacular speaking, the attempt is to use Hindi and/or Urdu much more than would occur naturally. […] So in the Hindi dialogue writing stage calls are taken on how much of the languages to use and often scenes also change because of this. This is a fairly unique process to Hindi films. (Bathija, personal communication) The film dialogue is thus the result of a complex process of writing, rewriting, negotiating and decision-making by different ‘authors’ or agents: the screenplay writer, the Hindi dialogue writer, the director, the actors and the producers. First, Bathija wrote the screenplay in English, then Hindi dialogues were added by Yiengar, and decisions were made on which languages to use, taking into consideration the contexts and the audience. During – and after – shooting, the director and the actors also contributed in deciding which languages to use. Another function of multilingualism and language choice in the film is to emphasise the cultural otherness of the Muslim characters. This is conveyed through the use of Arabic greetings, expressions, prayers or words. In MNIK, the choice of greeting signals religious, i.e. Muslim, identity to the audience. The greetings used by Rizvan and his family are aadaab, a formal Urdu greeting derived from Perso-Arabic and used by Indian Muslims to show respect (Bhatia & Ritchie, 2004: 796), and Salaam, As Salaam alaykum and Wa Aalekum salaam, which derive from Arabic (‘peace

22

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

be upon you’ – ‘and upon you’) and are uttered in formal and informal situations by Muslims in India. Bathija’s screenplay contains several occurrences of aadaab, while in the film the greeting aadaab is used only once, by Rizvan’s mother, when she meets a teacher. On the other hand, in the film the preferred greetings are Salaam, As Salaam alaykum and the reply Wa Aalekum salaam; perhaps because they are widely used internationally, they are immediately recognisable as Arabic and they are also used by Muslims in India. The film also contains two Arabic formulae: Bismillaah ir Rahmaan ir Rahiim [In the name of Allah, the most compassionate and merciful] and Insha’Allah [God willing], which are used by Rizvan to start his prayers and when writing a letter to Mandira. Rizvan’s recitations of Islamic prayers in Arabic are left untranslated, somehow emphasising otherness and fear of the Muslim other. For instance, in the opening scene Rizvan prays in Arabic while queuing at San Francisco Airport security check, and a young woman worriedly looks at him. Similarly, his recitation of Islamic prayers during a memorial service for the firefighters who died on 9/11 creates fear and indignation among the people around him. Rizvan also visually stands out as being different from everyone else, since a panning shot shows him in his white praying cap and kurta, surrounded by people wearing dark clothes. Cultural references (CRs) are also important symbols of religious identity. The film dialogue contains the following Arabic borrowings referring to Islam: Eid (Islamic festival marking the end of Ramadan), Jihad (holy war against infidels), Hijab (headscarf worn by Muslim women), Zakat (religious tax in Islam, giving a percentage of one’s income to charity) and Hadith (the body of tradition and legend about Mohammed and his followers, used as a basis of Islamic law). These words were subtitled in the US version of the film and explained in the English subtitle/spotting list which was provided to the Italian dubbing professionals.

The Italian Version For its distribution in the US, the Indian film was shortened by 35 minutes and subtitled in English (Bollywood Hungama, 2010). This US version was then sent to Italy, together with the English subtitle/spotting list. In the Italian dubbed version, we can observe a neutralisation of the film’s multilingualism as the different languages and instances of CS and CM have been dubbed into standard Italian. As a result, the hybrid, bilingual, bicultural identity of NRIs is obliterated and the multilingual situation disappears. While the Hindi language has been completely erased, Arabic words or expressions are maintained. In the Italian version there is a tendency to partly retain the Urdu and Arabic greetings used by Muslims in India (except for Wa alalekum salaam and adaab, which are replaced by Italian

Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood

23

greetings), as well as the CRs related to religious identity (Insha-allah, Eid, Jihad, Zakat, Hadith are kept in the Italian dialogue). The only exception is hijab, which is translated with the noun velo [veil]. The prayers uttered in Arabic are also left untranslated, without subtitles, so as to distance the audience from the Muslim other. By retaining Islamic prayers, most of the greetings and the borrowings from Arabic, the Italian dubbed version highlights the Muslim identity of the speakers, which is fundamental to the film’s plot. The choice of neutralising the presence of different languages while still conveying some flavour of the foreign original, by retaining culturespecific words, complies with the general tendency followed in Italy to dub multilingual films, especially those representing South Asians living in India, the UK or the US (Antonucci, 2011; Bonsignori, 2011, 2012; Bonsignori & Bruti, 2014; Minutella, 2012a). However, despite the dominant professional practice, scholars argue that ‘in multilingual films a meaningful element is represented by the fact that the viewers are confronted with what is foreign to them, and this must not be lost in the translation’ (Heiss, 2004: 33). An attempt should be made to convey such foreignness, and the linguistic and cultural identity of the characters and of the films themselves. The question thus arises: why did the dubbing professionals working on MNIK avoid using different modes, such as the combination of dubbing and subtitling, to deal with foreignness? One possible answer could be that in MNIK there is not a main language and a secondary language, or that the two languages (English and Hindi) are inextricably interwoven in some scenes, particularly in those set in the US, where the two languages are often mixed in the speech of bilingual Asian Indians. Choosing dubbing for English and subtitling for Hindi might become technically problematic when CS and CM occur. However, Italian dubbing professionals have dealt with multilingual films before, and mixed modes have been used in the translation of films like The Namesake (Mira Nair, 2006). This leads us to believe that the neutralisation of bilingualism and the avoidance of a combination of dubbing and subtitling might be due to commercial or ideological imperatives. In other words, since dubbing erases differences and takes the audiovisual product closer to the target audience, making it more familiar and less exotic, and since Italians are used to dubbing, dubbing professionals and the distributor have chosen this mode in order to reduce the foreignness of the film and to ensure both a wider market for the product and higher revenues. In order to gain some insight into the actual processes of the translation, adaptation, dubbing and distribution of the film, the dialogue writerdubbing assistant, Paccagnella, and the dubbing director, Sorrentino, were asked why they had not adopted the two modes of audiovisual translation. Paccagnella (personal communication) emphasised the technical and practical problems involved in using dubbing and subtitling in the same

24

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

production. By dubbing the parts in English and subtitling the parts in Hindi (leaving the original soundtrack), the same character would have two different voices, resulting in unnaturalness and breaking the illusion of reality. In addition, dubbing professionals would need to try to harmonise the voices, a rather complex and onerous task. Another solution might have been to employ the same dubbing actor to dub all the utterances in Hindi and Italian, but in Italy there are no Indian dubbing actors, and no Italian dubbing actors are able to reproduce the Indian pronunciation. Having Italian dubbing actors speak Hindi would result in a foreign and faked pronunciation that could be perceived as ridiculous or farcical. Since the film is not a comedy, but a dramatic story, and the characters need to sound believable, this would be unacceptable. Nonetheless, and despite these technical issues, Paccagnella (personal communication) believes that a mixed solution could and should be used for multilingual films like My Name Is Khan, in order to preserve their nature and identity, though she highlights the fact that habit as well as economic/market reasons tend to influence translation and adaptation choices and that it is ultimately the distributor who decides whether to dub or subtitle. Sorrentino (personal communication), who has a wide knowledge of Bollywood cinema, points out that MNIK is a Fox co-production that attempts to make Bollywood more international; a hybrid between Bollywood and Hollywood that differs from typical Indian films both in terms of topics and style. However, since it is still very different from the type of cinema that Italian viewers are used to watching, his aims as the dubbing director were to provide the audience with the means to interpret and understand this foreign, unknown world, to take the Indian film closer to the Italian audience, to make it less Indian and less distant from Italian culture. In his view, dubbing all languages into Italian helped him reduce the foreignness of the film. The only foreign elements that he retained were the religious references – when their meaning was clear from the context – while he preferred to avoid them if they had to be explained to his audience. Sorrentino’s aim in adapting the film was to be faithful to the film and its author, while at the same time helping the Italian audience understand this Indian film. When asked whether a combination of dubbing and subtitling could have been used to render the multilingual environment of the film, Sorrentino reacts strongly. In his opinion, subtitles cannot be used for a film of this nature, since the necessary condensation of the utterances in a maximum of two lines would imply such a loss of meaning that the Italian audience would not be able to understand the message. Furthermore, in Sorrentino’s view, if films were subtitled in Italy, people would stop going to the cinema and revenues would be lost. However, box office results seem to contradict Sorrentino’s claim as data from the website Box Office Mojo show that in Italy The Namesake, which used a combination of dubbing and subtitling, grossed $690,439 (Web 1), whereas the all-dubbed My Name Is Khan grossed only $152,972 (Web 2).

Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood

25

The success of a film is perhaps not dependent on the translation mode adopted, but on a combination of factors, such as genre, popularity of the actors/director and marketing strategies among others. Technical, ideological and economic reasons, as well as a belief on the part of some professionals that Italians would not watch subtitled films, seem to be behind the choice of dubbing all the dialogue exchanges into Italian while keeping some specific words imbued with religious connotations.

Different Audiences, Different Versions: The Trimmed Scenes A further issue that deserves attention is the fact that the original script and scenes have been considerably trimmed in the Italian version. Indeed, the Indian Bollywood film lasts approximately 165 minutes, while the international Hollywood cut is approximately 127 minutes long, i.e. some 35 minutes shorter. In Italy, this shorter print was released in cinemas, while the full film has been commercialised on DVD. The Italian dialogue writers first translated and adapted the shorter US version for its theatrical release, and later worked on the added (i.e. previously trimmed) scenes for the home video version (Paccagnella, personal communication). Director Johar (in Jha, 2010: online) explains that ‘an outsider’s perspective was needed to understand how the West would like to see MNIK’, so the US film editor Alan E. Bell was asked to shorten the film. The pre-hurricane and hurricane sequences set in Wilhemina, which had not been appreciated by the critics, were thus eliminated. Bathija (personal communication) also confirms that ‘there was an opinion that some portions were taking away from the authenticity of the film and so they needed to be trimmed or deleted. And so they were’. On the other hand, ‘subtitles and a voiceover in English [were] added for the US audience’ (Jha, 2010: online). The film’s linguistic and cinematic identity was thus manipulated by the filmmakers themselves and the US distributors in order to make MNIK more appealing and palatable to the new Western audiences. The analysis of the trimmed scenes sheds some light on the US editor’s attitude towards the film and its foreignness. Most of the excised scenes were in some pre-hurricane and hurricane sequences which were supposed to take place in the US, in the imaginary village of Wilhemina, Georgia, but were actually filmed in the Mumbai studios, and which had been criticised as exaggerated and unauthentic (Honeycutt, 2010; Jha, 2010). A long sequence in which Rizvan was welcomed by the African-American community of Wilhemina was completely edited out of the film, as well as the following hurricane scenes. Oddly enough, when Wilhemina is hit by hurricane Molly, Rizvan is the only person in the US to reach the

26

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

village and help the villagers. His arrival, in perfect Bollywood tradition, is accompanied by music and by close-up shots of the hero’s wet face. Camera movement and the use of music in these scenes are typical of the narrative style adopted by Bollywood films, but are perhaps too detached from reality and might break the filmic illusion for a Western viewer. These scenes in Wilhemina might have been deleted because they contained racial stereotypes: black boy Joel is called ‘funny hair Joel’, while his mother, Mama Jenny, is described as ‘a little fat’. Other obliterated scenes which may detract from the authenticity of the film, from a US point of view, are ‘the Helen Miranda Show’, in which Rizvan is interviewed by a black anchorwoman in an allusion to Oprah Winfrey, and a final exchange between the Indian hero and US President-elect Barack Obama, in which the latter says ‘I am honoured to share in the time of Rizvan Khan’. Overly sentimental, melodramatic scenes were also omitted. For instance, a three-minute dramatic sequence showing doctors trying to save Sameer was excised, as well as a memorial service for the black soldiers killed in Iraq, in which Rizvan talks about Sameer and ends up singing Hum Honge Kaamyaab, united with the African-American community who sing the same song in English, We Shall Overcome. Politically incorrect dialogue exchanges as well as violent, vulgar scenes were also scissored out. An example is a scene in which a Hindu Indian man shoots a gun in the air and heavily insults the men who have thrown a rock into his motel window, calling them bastards and ignorant since they cannot ‘make out the difference between a Gandhian Indian and a violent Muslim’. Other scenes to disappear are those displaying prejudice and xenophobic attacks against Muslims and Asian Indians in general. Comments heard in voiceover in Hindi, with English subtitles, such as ‘Reports are in from various parts of America that […] Muslims are being targeted and attacked. […] Questions are being raised about America’s biased views towards the Islamic community’ were deleted. In another omitted scene, Sameer’s school teacher explained to her pupils that ‘Of all the world’s religions, Islam is the most violent and aggressive. It encourages killing, or Jihad as they call it, in the name of God’. Such a negative portrayal of the US’s reaction to terrorist attacks might have been perceived as exaggerated and too strong, and hence the need to mitigate such sequences. Another scene that was excised showed Sameer being beaten up by a group of young men from his school, while shouting verbal abuse such as ‘you bloody Paki’, ‘terrorists’ and ‘screw you assholes’. By abridging the film and eliminating the scenes that were deemed unsuitable for the US market, the Indian MNIK was domesticated to accommodate Western tastes, its cultural otherness was reduced and the film was made to conform to the cinematic norms of the target culture. The excision of extended dialogue exchanges in Hindi also contributed to making the film less foreign for the US audience.

Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood

27

Conclusions This chapter has shown how various factors and agents have influenced the production and distribution, as well as the translation, adaptation and dubbing process into Italian of the film My Name Is Khan. A linguistic analysis of the source and target texts alone is not sufficient to explain the changes experienced by a Bollywood film, or any film for that matter, when it travels across countries, and an investigation of the socio-economic context and the synergies between the different cultures is also needed. As argued by Díaz Cintas (2012: 279), ‘the way in which cultural values are translated depends not only on linguistic asymmetries between languages but also on fundamental decisions based on power, dominance, and ideology’. The chapter has attempted to shed light on the processes of writing, rewriting (Lefevere, 1992), adaptation and domestication (Venuti, 1995, 1998), which this Indian film has undergone in its journey from India to Italy, via the US. Furthermore, the chapter highlights how the relationship between an Indian film and its Italian version is made even more complicated by current professional practices. There is not a binary, one-to-one relationship between one ST and one TT, nor one original, since multiple agents and texts are involved. In this particular case, the first ST was Bathija’s screenplay, written mostly in English with some Hindi dialogues, to which dialogues in Hindi were added by Yiengar and later adapted by the director and actors during the actual shooting. The final Indian version of the film (the original film), shot in English and Hindi, became another ST, which was then shortened and adapted in the USA for the international cut. This second version, together with the Master English subtitle/spotting list prepared by Deluxe Digital Studios, became the new STs sent to the Italian dubbing director. These were translated into Italian dialogues by Paccagnella and Ascione, and adapted by dubbing director Sorrentino and the dubbing actors. The final product is then commercialised as two Italian dubbed versions: one shorter, for the cinema, and another, longer one for DVD distribution. Since creative, transformative and economic factors are at play all along the process, identifying the ‘original text’ in this chain of rewritings is not an easy task. As far as the Italian dubbed versions are concerned, we have observed a domestication and flattening of bilingualism, whereby the linguistic and cultural otherness of the film and of the characters, their Indianness as well as their diasporic, hybrid, bilingual identity are neutralised. Although in the Indian film the choice of languages is not entirely realistic, dubbing the entire film into just one language obliterates the linguistic differences between the characters and part of their otherness. Only their being Muslim is emphasised by retaining Arabic words, especially those referring to Islam. The choice of monolingual dubbing might be partly due to technical reasons, but it seems to be dictated more by economic factors,

28

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

market strategies and the dubbing professionals’ assumption that an Italian audience would not be able to appreciate a subtitled film. What also emerges from this investigation is the presence of US linguistic and cultural mediation between India and Italy. As is often the case with films in less-known languages, English is used as a pivot language and in the case of MNIK, the Italian dubbed version was created by translating the Master English Subtitle/Spotting list. In addition, the filmmakers’ intention to try to make the film reach a wider audience meant that several cuts to the film were decided in the US. The rewriting, manipulation and domestication of both the film and its language at different production and distribution stages are an attempt to reduce the film’s foreign, i.e. Indian, features, and to make it more acceptable and ‘more palatable for the [global and the] local market in order to ensure large profits’ (Zanotti, 2012: 366). The choice of the scenes that were cut is meaningful and points towards a certain ideology behind the rewriting process, whose main objective seems to be the removal of those scenes that are not Western enough, that are too Indian or that provide an unflattering view of the US. By adapting, glocalising and domesticating, both in linguistic and in cinematic terms, MNIK was thus customised, in order to fit into the tastes of the hosting culture. Socio-economic and ideological forces appear to be at play when shaping the film product, as well as its translation and distribution in different countries.

References Ahuja, N.T. (2012) India is a great place to do business in…. Box Office India. See https:// boxofficeindia.co.in/india-is-a-great-place-to-do-business-in/2/ Manuscript. (accessed 27 January 2017). Aime, E. (2007) Storia del cinema indiano. Turin: Lindau. Antonucci, B. (2011) Indian English in audiovisual transpositions: The cultural load of code-mixing and code-switching in Indian (Middle) cinema. In G. Di Martino, L. Lombardo and S. Nuccorini (eds) Challenges for the 21st Century: Dilemmas, Ambiguities, Directions (Volume II: Language Studies) (pp. 189–197). Rome: Edizioni Q. Bathija, S. (2008) My Name Is Khan. Original screenplay. Bhatia, T.K. and Ritchie, W.C. (2004) Bilingualism in South Asia. In T.K. Bhatia and W.C. Ritchie (eds) The Handbook of Bilingualism (pp. 780–807). Oxford: Blackwell. Bollywood Hungama (2010) American version of My Name Is Khan to be shorter by 35 minutes. Bollywood Hungama News Network, April 17. See www.bollywoodhungama. com/moviemicro/news/type/view/id/ 1198520 (accessed 27 January 2017). Bonsignori, V. (2011) Desi/Brit-Asian in Italian dubbing. In G. Di Martino, L. Lombardo and S. Nuccorini (eds) Challenges for the 21st Century: Dilemmas, Ambiguities, Directions (Vol. 2. Language Studies) (pp. 141–149). Rome: Edizioni Q. Bonsignori, V. (2012) The transposition of cultural identity of Desi/Brit-Asian in Italian dubbing. In S. Bruti and E. Di Giovanni (eds) Audiovisual Translation Across Europe: An Ever-Changing Landscape (pp. 15–33). Oxford: Peter Lang. Bonsignori, V. and Bruti, S. (2014) Representing varieties of English in film language and dubbing. In R.M. Bollettieri Bosinelli, E. Di Giovanni and L. Rossato (eds) Across Screens Across Boundaries. Special issue of inTRAlinea. See www.intralinea.org/

Globalising Bollywood: My Name Is Khan from India to Italy through Hollywood

29

specials/article/representing_varieties_of_english_in_film_language_and_dubbing (accessed 27 January 2017). Delabastita, D. and Grutman, R. (eds) (2005) Fictionalising Translation and Multilingualism. Special Issue of Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series 4. De Bonis, G. (2014) Commedia in scompiglio: One, Two, Three. Il multilinguismo come veicolo di umorismo. In G.L. De Rosa, F. Bianchi, A. De Laurentiis and E. Perego (eds) Translating Humour in Audiovisual Texts (pp. 189–214). Bern: Peter Lang. De Bonis, G. (2014b) Alfred Hitchcock presents: Multilingualism as a vehicle for … suspense. The Italian dubbing of Hitchcock’s multilingual films. Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series 13, 169–192. De Bonis, G. (2014c) Dubbing multilingual films between neutralisation and preservation of lingua-cultural identities: A critical review of the current strategies in Italian dubbing. In M. Pavesi, M. Formentelli and E. Ghia (eds) The Languages of Dubbing. Mainstream Audiovisual Translation in Italy (pp. 243–266). Bern: Peter Lang. De Higes-Andino, I. (2009) El doblaje de los filmes plurilingües de migración contemporáneos: El caso de la película ‘En un mundo libre…’ de Ken Loach. MA dissertation, University of Valencia. De Higes-Andino, I. (2014a) Estudio descriptivo y comparativo de la traducción de filmes plurilingües: El caso del cine británico de migración y diáspora. PhD dissertation, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón. De Higes-Andino, I. (2014b) The translation of multilingual films: Modes, strategies, constraints and manipulation in the Spanish translations of It’s a Free World. Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series 13, 211–231. Díaz Cintas, J. (2012) Clearing the smoke to see the screen: Ideological manipulation in audiovisual translation. Meta 57 (2), 279–293. Dwyer, T. (2005) Universally speaking: Lost in Translation and polyglot cinema. Linguistica Antvierpiensia New Series 4, 295–310. Federici, F.M. (ed.) (2009) Translating Regionalised Voices in Audiovisuals. Rome: Aracne. Gumperz, J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Heiss, C. (2004) Dubbing multilingual films: A new challenge? Meta 49 (1), 208–220. Honeycutt, K. (2010) Film review: My Name is Khan. Shah Rukh Khan comes to America (although in a Bollywood film) and shows why he is an Indian mega-star. Film Journal International, 12 February. See www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/ reviews/specialty-releases/e3i82693d9fec5d7f34c45476143a5f2a90 (accessed 27 January 2017). Jha, S.J. (1993) Language Maintenance and Bilingualism in Darbhanga. PhD thesis, University of York. Jha, S.K. (2010) A shorter version for MNIK. Mumbai Mirror, 18 April. See http://articles. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-04-18/news-interviews/28142922_1_karanjohar-hurricane-film-city (accessed 27 January 2017). Lefevere, A. (1992) Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London: Routledge. Mahmood, S. and Mitra, M. (2011) Bollywood sets sights on a wider market. BBC Asian Network, 24 June. See www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13894702 (accessed 27 January 2017). Minutella, V. (2012a) ‘You fancying your gora coach is okay with me’: Translating multilingual films for an Italian audience. In A. Remael, P. Orero and M. Carroll (eds) Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility at the Crossroads (pp. 313–334). Amsterdam: Rodopi. Minutella, V. (2012b) Bollywood is not just all singing and dancing: Negotiating identities in My Name is Khan. In E. Adami and A. Martelli (eds) Within and Across:

30

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

Language and Construction of Shifting Identities in Post-Colonial Contexts (pp. 40–68). Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso. Monti, S. (2009) Codeswitching and multicultural identity in screen translation. In M. Freddi and M. Pavesi (eds) Analysing Audiovisual Dialogue. Linguistic and Translational Insights (pp. 165–183). Bologna: Clueb. Monti, S. (2014) Code-switching in British and American films and their Italian dubbed version. Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series 13, 135–168. Restelli, M. (2010) Il cinema indiano, la globalizzazione e l’Italia. MilleOrienti. See www.milleorienti.com/2010/ 02/09/il-cinema-indiano-la-globalizzazione-e-litalia (accessed 27 January 2017). Romaine, S. (1989/1995) Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell. Russo, K.E. (2016) My name is Khan: Engagement, affect and conflict in audiovisual translation. In O. Palusci and K.E. Russo (eds) Translating East and West (pp. 227– 238). Trento: Tangram Edizioni Scientifiche. Şerban, A. and Meylaerts, R. (eds) (2014) Multilingualism at the Cinema and on Stage: A Translation Perspective. Special issue of Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series 13. Sridhar, K.K. (2008) South Asian diaspora in Europe and the United States. In B.B. Kachru, Y. Kachru and S.N. Sridhar (eds) Language in South Asia (pp. 515–533). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sridhar, S.N. and Sridhar, K.K. (1980) The syntax and psycholinguistics of bilingual code-mixing. Canadian Journal of Psychology 34 (4), 409–418. Thussu, D.K. (2009) The globalization of ‘Bollywood’. The hype and the hope. In A.P. Kavoori and A. Punathambebak (eds) Global Bollywood (pp. 97–113). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Venuti, L. (1995) The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation. London: Routledge. Venuti, L. (1998) The Scandals of Translation. Towards an Ethics of Difference. London: Routledge. Zanotti, S. (2012) Censorship or profit? The manipulation of dialogue in dubbed youth films. Meta 57 (2), 351–368.

Websites India Questions SRK and Karan Johar (Aired: December 2010): See www.ndtv. com/video/player/india-questions/india-questions-srk-and-karan-johar-aireddecember-2010/283071 (accessed 27 January 2017). Web 1: See www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=namesake.htm (accessed 27 January 2017). Web 2: See www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=mynameiskhan.htm (accessed 27 January 2017).

Filmography Ae Fond Kiss. 2004. Ken Loach. UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium. Bend it Like Beckham. 2002. Gurinder Chadha. UK, Germany, USA. Forrest Gump. 1994. Robert Zemeckis. USA. Bride & Prejudice. 2004. Gurinder Chadha. UK, USA, India. My Name Is Khan. 2010. Karan Johar. India. Italian dialogue: Filippo Ascione, Serena Paccagnella. Dubbing director: Claudio Sorrentino. Monsoon Wedding. 2001. Mira Nair. India, USA, Italy, Germany, France. The Namesake. 2006. Mira Nair. India, USA. Rain Man. 1988. Barry Levinson. USA. Slumdog Millionaire. 2008. Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan. UK, USA.

2 How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers Marina Manfredi

Introduction Over the past 25 years, audiovisual (AV) communication technologies have had a profound impact on the role of the printed word in children’s and adolescents’ lives. With respect to the previous generation, young people have been relying much more on AV media than on books, magazines and comics for the scope of their education and entertainment. However, while research on translating children’s literature has developed within translation studies (TS) in the past 30 years, audiovisual translation (AVT) aspects of products for younger audiences have received less attention than other AVT topics. Even though there has been a growing interest in youthtargeted films and television programmes, most of the existing publications concentrate on animated cartoons (Di Giovanni, 2010; González Vera, 2012; O’Connell, 2000; Varga, 2012) and less on teen series (Bianchi, 2008). Along similar lines, immigration has been a growing phenomenon in many European countries over the past decades, leading to multilingual and multicultural societies. Therefore, multicultural studies are on the rise, especially from a sociological and political perspective, but also in educational and literary fields. Nevertheless, no specific studies have been carried out on the role of AVT in coping with issues related to identity, diversity and power relationships. I would argue that, although in the 21st century AVT can be said to enjoy the status of a mature discipline in its own right (Remael et al., 2012: 13), it could still expand its borders through a cross-disciplinary approach.

31

32

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

The aim of this contribution is to demonstrate that even a specific field like AVT, with its distinguishing features and constraints, could gain fruitful insights from subfields within TS such as children’s literature translation and postcolonial translation, when dealing with a new subgenre like multiethnic/multicultural sitcoms for a younger audience, which entails comparable issues. This chapter focuses on Italian dubbing, not only because Italy is historically a dubbing country, but also because AV products addressed to children are typically dubbed all over the world. By employing a crossdisciplinary approach – grounded in TS, mainly in the theory of translating for children and postcolonial TS, with insight from television studies and humour studies – I carry out a translational analysis of selected aspects of the teen-oriented Canadian sitcom How to Be Indie and its Italian dubbing. Although the investigation mainly concerns the verbal code, I also take into account other multisemiotic aspects typical of AV products, as well as connections with the socio-cultural context. In particular, I focus on a widely explored issue within AVT, culture-specific items (CSIs), which play a major role in conveying the multicultural identity of the characters in the sitcom under scrutiny.

Theoretical Framework Although AVT is deeply affected by its technical constraints, practical problems and commercial interests, it is my belief that a theoretical framework can offer valuable insight for an informed practice of translation. In what follows, I discuss how both the theory of translating children’s literature and postcolonial translation, which are relatively recent phenomena within TS, can serve this purpose.

Translating for ‘children’ Let us start from a definition of the term ‘children’. Products for children need to be viewed in a broad sense, as ‘written or published for children and we include the “teen” [texts] aimed at the “young adult” or “late adolescent”’ (Knowles & Malmkjaer, 1996: 2). Children’s literature can also be said to encompass a wide range of text types, not only ‘board books for the smallest readers, picture books both conventional and sophisticated, fairy tales, poems, information books, psychological novels, serious fiction and complex adolescent novels’ (O’Sullivan, 2013: 451), but also ‘everything that a child reads or hears’ (O’Connell, 2006: 22). It is clear from this point of view that AV products – like plays, puppet shows, video games, radio and TV programmes, films, videos and sitcoms – are also parts of this landscape. This is why, as O’Connell (2006) points out, one of the key scholars in the field of translation for children, Oittinen (2000), prefers the general term ‘receptor’ to ‘reader’, ‘listener’ or ‘viewer’.

How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers

33

All these text types share a common ground: their very specific audience, a particular kind of receptor with distinctive needs and views. Following Oittinen (2000), the expression ‘translating for children’ is preferred over ‘translation of children’s literature’, for two main reasons. First, it allows the inclusion of AV texts, or, as O’Connell (2006: 22–23) labels this field, ‘screen translation for children’. Second, it conveys a fundamental issue in this special kind of translation, based on asymmetrical communication: texts are meant for children but are designed by adults. Likewise, within the framework of television studies, researchers make clear that ‘children’s television is produced not by children but for them’ (Casey et al., 2008: 31) and state: [a]nalysis of children’s television should, then, take as its starting-point the fact that [it] is not so much a reflection of children’s interests but of adult constructions of children’s interests, fantasies and desires. As such, children’s television can be productively analysed in terms of the social, cultural and ideological boundaries between adulthood and childhood they set up. (Casey et al., 2008: 31) This concept finds parallels in the translation and dubbing of TV products for children. Moreover, translation for children rests on a central paradox: on the one hand, foreign texts are translated in order to introduce children to other cultures; on the other hand, foreign elements of those cultures are most often eliminated or adapted since younger readers are not deemed capable of understanding them, given their limited world knowledge. On this point, Lathey (2006: 12) remarks that only empirical reception studies could offer a response to the amount of foreignness with which younger receptors can cope. In practice, both in the publishing and AV worlds, texts for children tend to be heavily adapted to the target culture. Even from a theoretical perspective, mainstream scholars working in the field of translation for children argue for a ‘domesticating’ (Venuti, 1995: 20) approach. As Oittinen (2000: 76) underlines: ‘[w]hen translating, a specialist translator edits the source text in relation to certain readers and reasons. Every act of translating for children, too, has a purpose, scopos, and all translations should be domesticated according to this scopos’. Klingberg (1986), one of the first academics to pay serious attention to the translation of children’s literature, is critical of the tendency to neutralise cultural differences, which prevents foreign cultures from being spread and known. This view can be linked to major issues raised by postcolonial theory of translation, which are discussed in the next section.

Postcolonial translation Postcolonial TS emerged in the mid-/late 1980s, out of the influences exerted by disciplines such as anthropology, ethnography and colonial history (Manfredi, 2010). Scholars working within this framework

34

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

critically discuss notions of power, alterity and identity entailed in the act of translation, which is seen as a means of either ‘repressive force’ or ‘liberating power’ (Simon, 2000: 28). One of the earliest and fiercest attacks on translation as an instrument of the hegemonic power came from India, through the voice of Niranjana (1992: 21), who questioned the commonly held view of interlingual translation as a bridge between different cultures, positing the act of translation as a political action and ‘a significant technology of colonial domination’. However, far from arguing for the demise of translational activity, she maintained that it could be exploited as a liberating force. Niranjana (1992: 173) calls for an ‘interventionist’ policy of ‘resistance’ to the power of the coloniser’s language and contends that it can be pursued through a practice of literalism, hence through a translation rich in calques and borrowings, which could help preserve the Otherness of a different culture. Spivak (1992: 378–379) tallied with Niranjana in arguing for literalism as a means to highlight difference without overassimilating it to Western values. Their stance can be clearly linked to the Anglo-American ‘foreignising’ translation method championed by Venuti (1995). More recently, alternative and less radical positions have been put forward by other scholars, in the wake of Bhabha’s (1994) notion of hybridity. Due to the growing phenomena of migrancy, exile and diaspora, many postcolonial writers are representative of hybrid cultures because their identity is fragmented, as they live across borders. In this new map, the polarity between self/other, us/them, East/West, First/Third World is questioned, because of the existence of what has been called a ‘Third Space’ (Bhabha, 1994: 36), a ‘space-in-between’, where cultures meet. According to Bhabha, this ‘Third Space’ can represent the starting point for postcolonial translation strategies. Following this claim, Tymoczko (2000) and Wolf (2000) start from the assumption that nowadays translation is more than a means for bridging gaps between different cultures; it is a tool for producing meanings that originate from a multicultural encounter. A translation can thus be the result of a dialectical interaction between different cultures that hybridise without giving up their characteristics (Wolf, 2000: 131). For this reason, a translator should opt for another kind of ‘interventionist’ strategy (Wolf, 2000: 130), where what is ‘new’ comes to life and where cultures are mingled. As Nergaard (2009: 511–512, my translation) notes: ‘the space where we move is mixed and hybrid, separations and differences are in the world and not between different worlds. It is in this space that translations take place’. I would argue that such views can prove useful to investigate issues of foreignisation/domestication in a multicultural televisual product addressed to a younger audience.

How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers

35

Methodology Aware that AVT research is moving away from case studies, I have decided to focus on a specific and limited example because we are dealing with a new genre in the Italian landscape, which could be labelled ‘multiethnic/multicultural sitcom for a younger audience’. The investigation is mainly concerned with dialogues, but not taken in isolation from their audio and visual context. The AV text is considered in its multisemiotic nature and, when necessary, I take into account the verbal and nonverbal dimensions of communication, following Delabastita’s (1989) distinction between the acoustic-verbal, the acoustic-nonverbal, the visual-nonverbal and the visual-verbal elements involved, as suggested by Díaz Cintas (2008: 3). In particular, I examine CSIs, otherwise labelled as culture-specific references (Chiaro, 2009: 155), a term borrowed from Franco Aixelá (1996), who defines CSIs as follows: [t]hose textually actualized items whose function and connotations in a source text involve a translation problem in their transference to a target text, whenever this problem is a product of the nonexistence of the referred item or of its different intertextual status in the cultural system of the readers of the target text. (Franco Aixelá, 1996: 58) This model is held to be a suitable tool for classifying strategies employed by the (dubbing) translator on the basis of functional considerations. Indeed, it allows the consideration of any linguistic/cultural element as a CSI, not in absolute terms, but according to its function in a certain context, be it a specific scene or a combination of semiotic signs. The concept of ‘item’ is employed in a broad sense, not limited to words but including any cultural instance. For mere analytical purposes, I classify instances of translation strategies borrowing Franco Aixelá’s (1996) taxonomy, which distinguishes two macro-categories of translation, i.e. conservation and substitution, both of which contain several micro-strategies. Since Franco Aixelá’s categorisation is applied to literary texts, I select those strategies that best serve the purpose of analysing an AV text. Despite being aware of the specific nature of text in AVT, the terms source text (ST) and target text (TT) are used, in line with television studies, according to which ‘a text is, in the first instance, a television programme’ (Casey et al., 2008: 288). Given that the sitcom under investigation is typically based on humour, a salient feature of the genre itself and a widely explored issue in AVT (Chiaro, 2010), I also refer to humour studies, in particular to the incongruity theory proposed by Morreal (1989). According to this view,

36

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

‘humour arises from ill-fitting elements introduced into a context of expectation’ (Brock, 2011: 263). From a linguistic perspective, as illustrated by Brock (2011), incongruities can be based on the source language (SL) system, be in contrast with it or pertain to alternative language systems. The approach in these pages is basically descriptive, in the conviction that, for a real assessment of the quality of a dubbed product, only receptors could be reliable evaluators.

Material and Context The study focuses on How to Be Indie (HTBI), a Canadian situation comedy created by scriptwriter Vera Santamaria together with executive producers John May and Suzanne Bolch. The show premiered on the Canadian network YTV in 2009; it was produced by Heroic Film Company, based in Toronto and specialising in programming for kids and tween-age audiences, and ran for two seasons, each containing 26 episodes of 25 minutes each (2009–2011). The series was also aired in the UK on the Disney Channel (2010–2011) and in Australia on ABC (2009–2012). Dubbed versions were released around the world, from Latin America to Africa, distributed by DHX Media. In Europe, HTBI was screened in France on Canal J as Indie à tout prix (2010), and more recently in Germany on KiKA as How to Be Indie – Wie ich lerne, ich zu sein (2013–). The Italian version Essere Indie (EI) was broadcast on the satellite channel DeAKids (Sky, www.deakids.it), a channel specially addressed to kids and youth audiences, in 2010, and its dubbing director was Federico Danti. The sitcom (or kid-com) addresses teenagers, or rather tweens, which is short for ‘tween-age’ and refers to somebody who is nearly, or has only just become, a teenager. The term is often used in marketing or broadcasting fields for a target market/audience. In the series, the main character is a 13-year-old Indo-Canadian girl, Indira Mehta – named Indira by her parents and siblings and nicknamed Indie by her friends – who emigrated from India to Canada with her family. Even though she is constantly torn between her traditional and eccentric South Asian parents rooted in their original culture and the typical school and daily life of a Western teenager, Indie never loses her identity. Through funny and absurd situations and her sense of humour, she invariably manages to find her path in life, which is neither Indian, nor Canadian, but her own. She is proud of being equal to her peers, albeit different. The message is clearly a call for integration, inclusion and acceptance of diversity. As a televisual product cannot be separated from the environment in which it is consumed, the contexts where the sitcom was aired (Canada and Italy) are analysed from a sociocultural point of view in an attempt to assess whether the two audiences were ready for such a programme. Canada has had the status of a multilingual and multicultural country

How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers

37

for a long time. As Pascua (2003: 278) reminds us, back in 1988, ‘when Parliament in Ottawa passed the Canadian Multiculturalism Act […], Canada became the very first country to acknowledge and encourage cultural and racial diversity via legislation’. It has thus been accustomed to diversity for over 25 years. Over the past 15 years, immigration has been soaring in Italy, leading to a much more multicultural society than that of the end-of-themillennium scenario. Before releasing the series, DeAKids commissioned a sociological research on the topics of integration and cross-culturalism, based on video interviews of school children in Italian junior high schools. As the media reported (Sala, 2010), data were not encouraging: problems of integration, on the part of young people and their families, came to the fore. However, the rise of immigration also entailed positive aspects such as the fundamental role that youth could play in casting a positive light on cultural diversity. DeAKids sells itself as a funny channel for young people, merging the originality and quality of the products, and aiming at the goal of edutainment, i.e. ‘entertainment that is designed to teach something’ (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/edutainment). It is thus clear that the acquisition of such a sitcom aimed at Italian teenagers also had a political, cultural and ethical purpose. Even though access to the translation brief given to the translator and/or dubbing translator could not be gained, it is my contention that an AV product that reflects a multicultural vision of society requires a special concern for multicultural issues. In the next section, basically endorsing the conceptual frame set up by postcolonial TS, a translational analysis is conducted of the main CSIs included in the first four episodes of the first season and their translation for an Italian audience. The four episodes are: (1) ‘How to make your rep’/‘Come farsi un buon nome’; (2) ‘How to have your samosa and eat it too’/‘Come ottenere il tuo samosa e mangiartelo’; (3) ‘How to get on Carlos Martinelli’s capital “L” list, and live’/‘Come finire sulla famosa lista di Carlos Martinelli e sopravvivere’; and (4) ‘How to trick your parents into treating you like a grown up’/‘Come convincere i tuoi genitori a trattarti come un adulto’.

Analysis Within the dialogue exchanges of the Canadian sitcom, the multicultural nature of the characters is conveyed at both phonological and lexico-grammatical levels. However, as is typical of AVT and dubbing in particular (Chiaro, 2009: 158), language varieties and accents are rarely reproduced in the target language (TL). For example, Indie’s mother, father and grandfather display a strong Indian English accent, whereas in the Italian version they speak standard Italian. Similarly, Indie and her friends speak American and Canadian English, which is standardised in the TT, without conveying any geographical hint. A systematic study of the

38

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

solutions adopted in dubbing EI should also include naturalness of dialogue; however, due to space constraints, CSIs are the main focus of this study. Let us now move on to analyse how the most relevant CSIs have been rendered in EI, through a selection of illustrative examples.

Conservation Along a cline ‘from a lesser to a greater degree of intercultural manipulation’, Franco Aixelá (1996: 61) distinguishes two main categories, i.e. conservation and substitution, which could be associated with foreignising and domesticating methods of translation. Each comprises a number of subcategories, which function as micro-strategies of translation. The macro-category of conservation includes repetition, orthographic adaptation, linguistic (non-cultural) translation, extratextual gloss and intratextual gloss (Franco Aixelá, 1996: 61–62). Out of the five microstrategies, we will only consider repetition and linguistic (non-cultural) translation.

Repetition Repetition, intended as the conservation of the CSI intact (Franco Aixelá, 1996: 61), tends to be employed when rendering conventional proper names, even in translation for children. It is not surprising that in EI the characters’ names have been maintained, since they reflect their multicultural origins: India for Indira (Indie) Mehta, her sister Chandra and her brother AJ, Philippines for Abigail (Abi) Flores and Canada for Marlon Parks, Indie’s best friends. Her grandfather, Babaji, is named through a typical Indian term of address, Baba, meaning ‘father, grandfather, ascetic, child’ (Hawkins, 1984: 6), followed by the respectful suffix ji. Also in this case the CSI has been transferred in the TT, where it conveys the Indianness of the character that a neutral translation as ‘grandfather’ would not. More surprising is the repetition of a fictional name like Buster, an aggressive chicken, introduced by Babaji as ‘Buster, beak of death’ and rendered into Italian as Buster, il becco della morte (episode 1x03). While the literal translation of ‘beak of death’ into il becco della morte is quite descriptive for both English-speaking and Italian kids, and a close-up shot shows the chicken’s beak even before it is involved in a humorous scene, Buster, a colloquial and slang term for ‘a person who or thing which busts a specified thing, or causes it to break or burst’ (OED, www.oed.com), can be amusing exclusively for the source audience. After examining the shots where the chicken is mentioned, lip-synchronisation does not seem a real problem and such a choice can be interpreted as a technique to maintain the repetition of the sound b (Buster-beak and Buster-becco), probably funny and appellative for children. Alternatively, this micro-strategy might simply be a consequence of a wider macro-strategy of foreignisation.

How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers

39

The choice of repeating general names of animals, like ‘caribou’ (episode 1x03) and ‘grizzly’ (episode 1x01), could be partly linked to problems with lip-synchronisation. For example, a close-up shot appears on screen when Indie’s mother mentions the caribou while recalling a party that she found extremely amusing and showing the viewer a videotape that contains a documentary entitled Life and Death in Northern Canada. As regards grizzly, visual-nonverbal elements can be potentially complementary to the verbal code: Indie pretends she has escaped a grizzly attack and simulates it through theatrical gestures that emphasise the bear’s ferocity. A grizzly could sound rougher and more threatening than a common orso [bear] for Italian tweens as well. However, ultimately, both translation choices might represent a way to convey the Canadian environment. Repetition also concerns typically Anglo-American festivities like Halloween, nowadays widely celebrated across the world, including Italy. In this specific case, a visual constraint must have affected the translation choice, since the Halloween episode ends with a banner that functions as a message for the viewer: Happy Halloween–Felice Halloween (episode 1x04). Repetition of the fictional name of a game like ‘Quidditch’ could be linked to the particular type of young audience, in a clear intertextual reference to the well-known Harry Potter series. Humour lies in the fact that it is Babaji, Indie’s traditional and witty grandfather, who is totally absorbed in the audiobook and is unexpectedly late for dinner: 1. Episode 1x02 Babaji: It’s in the middle of the quidditch match!

Sono nel bel mezzo dell’incontro di quidditch! [I’m right in the middle of the quidditch match!]

Not surprisingly, the realm of food offers a large number of examples. Names of Indian dishes are always kept in the TT, not only when in combination with the visual code, but also when limited to the verbal code. The visual code can aid comprehension, but even though the young viewer is not familiar with a specific dish, maintaining its Indian name can still convey cultural Otherness. For example, samosa, a ‘triangular fried pastry stuffed with meat or vegetable’ (Hawkins, 1984: 84), is at the core of an entire episode (1x02), entitled ‘How to have your samosa and eat it too’/‘Come ottenere il tuo samosa e mangiartelo’, centred on the Wonderful World O’ Food Day, when boys and girls are asked to bring to school their traditional dishes to celebrate cultural diversity. Significantly, although not associated with the visual code, also CSIs like pani puri, i.e. ‘small round of fried wheaten cake’, with ‘water’ (Hawkins, 1984: 78, 72) and tandoori (chicken) (episode 1x03) are repeated in the TT. While tandur, i.e. baked in a large earthen oven, is a cooking

40

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

style that could be understood by those Italian tweens who are familiar with so-called ethnic food, pani puri is virtually unknown in Italy. But their function in the action seems, again, to highlight the multicultural nature of the characters. Repetition also occurs to instantiate humour. When school bully Carlos Martinelli trips a schoolmate up, making him drop his tray containing his meal and fall down, covered with spaghetti and sauce, he shouts: 2. Episode 1x03 Carlos: Pasta la vista, baby.

Pasta la vista, baby.

The pun is directly transferred into the TT, where it keeps the same function. Humour lies in the incongruity of another language, i.e. the Spanish greeting hasta la vista. The visual-nonverbal image of pasta on the floor may help the viewer appreciate (and understand) the joke. At the same time, repetition seems to convey the multicultural nature of the character, probably of Spanish origin, as his first name Carlos suggests.

Linguistic (non-cultural) translation Conservation is not limited to isolated items. For instance, Babaji’s Indian proverbs – most probably calques from Hindi or other Indian languages – are maintained in the Italian TT through the strategy of linguistic (non-cultural) translation, which accounts for the linguistic transparency of the CSI (Franco Aixelá, 1996: 61). Let us look at the following example: 3. Episode 1x01 Babaji: The bruisest banana is quite often the sweetest.

La banana ammaccata spesso è la più dolce. [The bruised banana is often the sweetest.]

Reference to the Indian cultural environment could be self-evident banana is a fundamental crop in India and a very popular fruit among all classes of people, who consume it either fresh or cooked, both ripe and raw (http://nhb.gov.in/report_files/banana/BANANA.htm). However, in the form of the proverb, Indie (and the viewer) find it difficult to grasp the real meaning. Another instance of linguistic (non-cultural) translation is the rendering of the game ‘kiss me in the closet’ into baciami nell’armadio (episode 1x03). In this case, even though the CSI can sound foreignising to the Italian young viewer, whereas other games would have been more familiar, the choice of such a solution matches with the plot and the visual elements.

How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers

41

Substitution Within the macro-category of substitution, Franco Aixelá (1996: 63–64) includes six different micro-strategies, namely synonymy, limited universalisation, absolute universalisation, naturalisation, deletion and autonomous creation. Out of these strategies, occurrences of limited universalisation and of naturalisation are considered below.

Limited universalisation Limited universalisation (Franco Aixelá, 1996: 63) takes place when a CSI in the ST is deemed too obscure and is replaced with another reference belonging to the SL culture, but more familiar to the target audience. While names of Indian dishes are constantly repeated in the Italian TT, a typical North American kind of food is translated through the strategy of limited universalisation: 4. Episode 1x01 Abi: It’s sloppy joes. Marlon: Sloppy joes? I’m alive again!

Oggi ci sono gli hamburger. Ci sono gli hamburger? Son risuscitato. [We have hamburgers today. Do we have hamburgers? I’m resurrected.]

‘Sloppy joes’, i.e. sandwiches made of ground meat, are mentioned by Abi and Marlon on the first day back at school, but without any association with a visual element. The (dubbing) translator in this case felt free to replace the CSI with another typical American dish, much better known to Italian tweens.

Naturalisation Naturalisation, the replacement of a CSI with one more typical of the target culture (Franco Aixelá, 1996: 63–64), has been employed at different levels, such as in the educational field to refer to grading systems: 5. Episode 1x01 Indie: Where are the 7th graders so I can feel superior?

Dove sono quelli di 2a media? Voglio sentirmi superiore. [Where are those from the 2nd year of secondary school? I wish to feel superior]

Another instance of naturalisation can be found when Babaji, talking to his granddaughter, uses what looks like a calque of some Indian expression:

42

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

6. Episode 1x01 Bhaba Ji: I’m trying to impact wisdom... Grain for your coconut.

Sto cercando di infondere un po’ di saggezza in questa tua zucca vuota. [I’m trying to instil wisdom in this empty pumpkin of yours – empty pumpkin: idiom for ‘fat head’.]

Since the dialogue in this case is combined with a visual element, namely Babaji’s gesture of patting the girl’s head, the reference to a coconut seems to have been deemed too foreignising and domestication has been preferred. A further interesting case of naturalisation occurs when the mother talks to Chandra and AJ and says: 7. Episode 1x02 Mother: Stop talking to your sister and behave like a family.

Smettetela di chiacchierare e portate questo in tavola. [Stop chatting and take this to the dinner table.]

The Italian naturalised dialogue actually matches the scene, where Indie’s brother and sister take dishes to the dinner table. Conjectures could be made about such a choice, maybe related to sociocultural issues. Arguably, reference to good manners and proper behaviour were felt too ambiguous for the average Italian tween, perhaps not so used to lending a hand in domestic affairs.

Combined strategies In some cases, different strategies have been combined. For example, on the above mentioned ‘Wonderful World O’ Food Day’, Indie has to share the South Asia booth with a self-confident boy, Ram Ramachandran, who creates original ‘biryani cones’ (episode 1x02), i.e. cones stuffed with ‘rice, cooked with meat and vegetables’ (Hawkins, 1984: 11). This CSI is rendered in the TL as coni biryani, through repetition and linguistic (non-cultural) translation. Likewise, ‘onion pakoras’ (episode 1x03), ‘fried salty pastry stuffed with vegetables’ (Hawkins, 1984: 71), proudly cooked by Indie’s mother for her party in the basement, are rendered as pakora di cipolla. Similarly, combined strategies of translation are employed when Indie recalls Ram’s weird dishes during the previous year’s celebration of cultural diversity. In this specific case, visual-verbal elements in the form of intertitles appear on the screen, are read aloud by Indie and are translated in the TT, both visually and acoustically:

How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers

43

8. Episode 1x02 Curried nougat Skinwiches Papadamsicles

Torrone al curry Tramezzini di pelle di pollo Ghiaccioli al papadums [Curried nougat Chicken skin sandwiches Papadams icicles]

Since such visual-verbal elements are technically replaced by new ones, the (dubbing) translator might have taken the liberty of manipulating the material by employing substitution. However, repetition was adopted when dealing with Indian references, such as ‘curried’, prepared with curry and ‘papadams’, i.e. ‘thin lentil-cakes, fried till brittle’ (Hawkins, 1984: 72). As regards ‘skinwiches’, a typical example of humour based on a noninstantiaton of the SL (Brock, 2011: 264), both linguistic (non-cultural) translation and a sort of intratextual gloss (di pollo [of chicken]) have been adopted to recreate the pun. Even opposed strategies of conservation and substitution have been combined within the same CSI. Again, this occurs when other codes are involved, in particular visual-verbal. When Ram tries to sabotage Indie and her traditional ‘samosa’, he puts up a poster on the school board that reads: 9. Episode 1x02 Chef Ram’s biryani cones vs Indie’s lame-osas.

I coni biryani dello chef Ram contro i samschifosa di Indie. [Biryani cones of Chef Ram vs samdisgust[ing]osas of Indie.]

Since the message is also verbalised – Ram makes fun of Indie through a loudspeaker – the (dubbing) translator chose to maintain the reference to samosas, at the very core of the episode, and in turn tried to recreate humour by coining a neologism. Thus, ‘lame-osas’ (from ‘lame’, with the figurative meaning of ‘imperfect or defective, unsatisfactory’) has become schif-osas, where schifoso is a colloquial term for ‘disgusting’.

An ‘Interventionist’ Postcolonial Translation? Although limited in scale, this analysis revealed that dubbing the Canadian sitcom HTBI into Italian is fundamentally foreignising, which is atypical for a TV product addressed to a younger audience. Since it is most often concerned with instances of Indian CSIs, repeated in the TT, I would

44

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

like to argue that it is in line with some of the most radical interventionist strategies proposed by postcolonial scholars like Niranjana and Spivak (see section ‘Postcolonial Translation’). This hypothesis seems confirmed by the fact that conservation is employed even when no other multimedia elements are involved. Conversely, substitution mainly regards references to the US or Canadian world, as well as scenes where multisemiotic codes do not play an essential role. As mentioned at the beginning, I will not evaluate the dubbed product and the level of tolerance towards foreignness that the younger audience is estimated to possess as only actual viewers could do so effectively. As O’Sullivan (2013: 453) highlights, ‘what children actually understand, and how much “foreignness” they can and do cope with is the great black box of translating for children’. Radical strategies as proposed by Niranjana and Spivak, not unlike Venuti’s foreignisation, seem to be the most valid approach to adopt when translating a multicultural text with the aim of preserving its cultural specificity and diversity. Nevertheless, this solution is not necessarily the only viable choice. Without denying the value of this approach in itself, it might be merged with a more moderate view, like that suggested by Wolf (2000), who advocates another type of interventionist strategy, where cultures are mingled (see section ‘Postcolonial Translation’). In verbal-written texts like literary ones, as argued elsewhere (Manfredi, 2010, 2012), a more moderate approach might entail combining strategies of foreignisation and domestication, to aid the aim of respecting both the foreignness of the ST as well as the different target reader. In these cases, the addition of extratextual or intratextual glosses, in the form of glossaries and footnotes or amplifications, respectively, could represent a viable solution. Certainly, it is not the case of AVT. When the visual dimension does not concur to make cultural references clear, alternative solutions could perhaps be sought, even sacrificing foreignisation. Although such a strategy is fundamental to respect the cultural and ethical values of the sitcom, the needs of the target viewer should also be taken into account, if the final aim is also that of diffusing different cultures. In today’s globalised world, postcolonial translation might have a dual role, as an unrivalled means of preserving different cultures and, at the same time, as an invaluable channel of disseminating them.

Concluding Remarks This study is a preliminary attempt to explore a new genre, at least in the Italian AV landscape. If and when this new genre develops and consolidates, a larger corpus for investigation will be available for more extensive and systematic research. Larger-scale research might also include other language pairs, in order to see whether any parallels can be established and to assess

How to be Indian in Canada, How to Be Indie in Italy: Dubbing a TV Sitcom for Teenagers

45

whether new norms can be discerned in this particular area of translation for children. One of the main objectives of this chapter has been to demonstrate that a cross-disciplinary approach to AVT, mainly informed by postcolonial TS, can be particularly useful. Most importantly, as repeatedly said, I firmly believe that reception studies should gain ground. In order to create a product that meets the end users’ needs, a sample of its estimated target audience should be part of the process and their opinions taken into consideration when deciding on the main translation approach. Psychologists could also be involved, to study the audience’s experience of viewing such a televisual product, for example in terms of their ability to concentrate on such complex issues. A dialogue with intercultural agents might also offer further insight. On the other hand, a call for education that takes multiculturalism, or rather interculturalism, as its core could come from the AV medium itself. Nowadays, television is an influential medium that could be integrated into intercultural education and teachers could be involved in projects that exploit multimedia texts. By inserting the sitcom into their activities, they could play an active role in educating young people to accept diversity, also through translation and dubbing. The benefits could be both educational and commercial, since it could pave the way for the broadcasting of other similar sitcoms.

References Bhabha, H.K. (1994) The Location of Culture. London/New York: Routledge. Bianchi, D. (2008) Taming teen-language: The adaptation of Buffyspeak into Italian. In D. Chiaro, C. Heiss and C. Bucaria (eds) Between Text and Image: Updating Research in Screen Translation (pp. 183–195). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Brock, A. (2011) Bumcivilian: Systemic aspects of humorous communication in comedies. In R. Piazza, M. Bednarek and F. Rossi (eds) Telecinematic Discourse. Approaches to the Language of Films and Television Series (pp. 263–280). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Casey, B., Casey, N., Calvert. B., French, L. and Lewis, J. (2008) Television Studies: The Key Concepts (2nd edn). London: Routledge. Chiaro, D. (2009) Issues in audiovisual translation. In J. Munday (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies (pp. 141–165). London: Routledge. Chiaro, D. (ed.) (2010) Translation, Humour and the Media. London: Continuum. Delabastita, D. (1989) Translation and mass-communication: Film and TV translation as evidence of cultural dynamics. Babel 35 (4), 193–218. Díaz Cintas, J. (2008) Audiovisual translation comes of age. In D. Chiaro, C. Heiss and C. Bucaria (eds) Between Text and Image: Updating Research in Screen Translation. (pp. 1–9). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Di Giovanni, E. (2010) Shifts in audiovisual translation for children: Reviving linguisticdriven analyses. In E. Di Giovanni, C. Elefante and R. Pederzoli (eds) Écrire et Traduire pour les Enfants: Voix, Images et Mots/Writing and Translating for Children: Voices, Images and Texts (pp. 303–320). Brussels: Peter Lang. Franco Aixelá, J. (1996) Culture-specific items in translation. In R. Álvarez and M. Carmen-África Vidal (eds) Translation, Power, Subversion (pp. 52–78). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

46

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

González Vera, P. (2012) The translation of linguistic stereotypes in animated films: A case study of DreamWorks’ Shrek and Shark Tale. The Journal of Specialised Translation 17, 104–123. See www.jostrans.org/issue17/art_gonzalez.pdf (accessed 27 January 2017). Hawkins, R.E. (1984) Common Indian Words in English. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Klingberg, G. (1986) Children’s Fiction in the Hands of the Translators. Malmo: CWK Gleerup. Knowles, M. and Malmkjaer, K. (1996) Language and Control in Children’s Literature. London: Routledge. Lathey, G. (2006) Introduction. In G. Lathey (ed.) The Translation of Children’s Literature (pp. 1–12). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Manfredi, M. (2010) Preserving linguistic and cultural diversity in and through translation: From theory to practice. Mutatis Mutandis 3 (1), 45–72. Manfredi, M. (2012) Preservare/divulgare l’alterità linguistico-culturale: La traduzione postcoloniale come doppio atto etico. In S. Arduini and I. Carmignani (eds) Giornate della traduzione letteraria 2010–2011 (pp. 64–70). Roma: Voland. Morreal, J. (1989) Enjoying incongruity. Humor 2 (1), 1–18. Nergaard, S. (2009) ‘Cosa significa traduzione oggi?’ In R.M. Bollettieri Bosinelli and E. Di Giovanni (eds) Oltre l’Occidente: Traduzione e alterità culturale (pp. 479–518). Milano: Bompiani. Niranjana, T. (1992) Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism and the Colonial Context. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. O’Connell, E. (2000) Minority language dubbing for children: Strategic considerations. In G. Jones (ed.) Proceedings of the Mercator Conference on Audiovisual Translation and Minority Languages (pp. 62–72). Aberystwyth: Mercator Media. O’Connell, E. (2006) Translating for children. In G. Lathey (ed.) The Translation of Children’s Literature (pp. 15–24). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Oittinen, R. (2000) Translating for Children. New York: Garland. O’Sullivan, E. (2013) Children’s literature and translation studies. In C. Millán and F. Bartrina (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies (pp. 451–463). London: Routledge. Pascua, I. (2003) Translation and intercultural education. Meta 48 (1–2), 276–284. Remael, A., Orero, P. and Carroll, M. (2012) Audiovisual translation and media accessibility at the crossroads. In A. Remael, P. Orero and M. Carroll (eds) Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility at the Crossroads (pp. 13–21). Amsterdam: Rodopi. Sala, A. (2010) Indie, debutta la sit-com anti razzismo. Corriere della sera, 19 April. See www.corriere.it/spettacoli/10_aprile_19/essere-indie-razzismo-integrazionebambini-scuole_a8b08048-4b8e-11df-b8c5-00144f02aabe.shtml (accessed 27 January 2017). Simon, S. (2000) Introduction. In S. Simon and P. St-Pierre (eds) Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era (pp. 9–29). Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Spivak, G.C. (1992) The politics of translation. In L. Venuti (ed.) The Translation Studies Reader (2nd edn; pp. 369–388). London: Routledge. Tymoczko, M. (2000) Translations of themselves: The contours of postcolonial fiction. In S. Simon and P. St-Pierre (eds) Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era (pp. 147–163). Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Varga, C. (2012) Childish translation vs. translation for children: The subtitling of fictional dialogues in cartoon movies. In M.B. Fischer and M. Wirf Naro (eds) Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young People (pp. 357–376). Berlin: Frank & Timme. Venuti, L. (1995) The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge. Wolf, M. (2000) The Third Space in postcolonial representation. In S. Simon and P. St-Pierre (eds) Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era (pp. 127–145). Ottawa: University of Ottawa.

3 Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World Sattar Izwaini

Introduction Censorship is a legal, administrative and socio-economic practice based on laws, rules, directives, guidelines, instructions, criteria and attitudes that has a direct impact on translation as an activity as well as on translators. It is usually exercised by a dominant, authoritative or powerful party, be it governmental, organisational, religious or corporate. Censorship can also be covertly practiced by translators themselves, whether as a response to the authority of another party in the form of having to abide by the expected requirements of institutional censorship, or out of familiarity with the target language (TL) sociocultural value system (Billiani, 2009; Gambier, 2002). Cultural constraints and legal provisions in the Arab world play a role in the censoring and manipulating of subtitling into Arabic. Censorship in Arab countries usually prohibits activities that do not comply with moral standards and is particularly exercised in the media, both domestic and foreign productions. The language used in foreign programmes generally reflects the culture of the source language (SL) and is normally peppered with foul language and lexical items that can be culturally sensitive for the TL audience. The translator providing Arabic subtitles needs to be careful with offensive expressions as they can potentially offend if translated directly. Films, drama series and TV shows are subject to linguistic scrutiny in order to filter out culturally problematic expressions that would challenge prevalent sensitivities of religion, sex and social taboos. This is usually done by toning down or deleting strong language, sexual references and swear words. Researchers report that subtitles in Chinese (Chen, 2004, 2005; Fong, 2009; Lung, 1998), Finnish (Gambier, 2002), Latin American Spanish (Scandura, 2004) and Swedish (Mattsson, 2006) are mitigated in different ways to avoid offensive expressions. After investigating foul language in the Arabic subtitles of three films and one TV series, Mazid (2006) finds that euphemisms and deletions are frequently used to deal with such language.

47

48

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

The subtitles investigated here have been collected from mainly English language screen productions (US feature films and TV series) that were broadcast by Arab satellite stations located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), except for one which was shown by the Lebanon-based Future TV: Arlington Road. 1999. Mark Pellington. USA Adaptation. 2002. Spike Jonze. USA Driving Miss Daisy. 1989. Bruce Beresford. USA Heist. 2001. David Mamet. Canada and USA Jalla, Jalla. 2000. Josef Fares. Sweden LA Confidential. 1997. Curtis Hanson. USA La Vie en Rose. 2007. Olivier Dahan. France, UK and Czech Republic Nip/Tuck. 2003–2010. Michael Robin et al. USA Showtime. 2002. Tom Dey. USA and Australia The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. 2008. David Fincher. USA The Departed. 2006. Martin Scorsese. USA and Hong Kong The Island. 2005. Michael Bay. USA The Legend of 1900. 1999. Giuseppe Tornatore. Italy The Matrix. 1999. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. USA and Australia The Sopranos. 1999–2007. Timothy Van Patten et al. USA The Witches of Eastwick. 1987. George Miller. USA Troy. 2004. Wolfgang Petersen. USA, Malta and UK These TV stations broadcast to all Arab countries and the translation agencies that usually carry out the subtitling for these channels are located in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the UAE. The name of the translation agency is usually, but not always, stated at the end of the audiovisual production. The censorship practices in three countries of different political, economic, social and cultural profiles – i.e. Egypt, Lebanon and the UAE – are examined here, paying special attention to the laws of these countries and their attitudes towards language usage on screen. In addition, manipulation patterns and their impact on the target subtitles are illustrated with real examples.

Censorship Context This section provides an outline of the various factors that play a role in shaping the censorship context and lead to the manipulation of Arabic subtitles, namely cultural, legal, institutional and translator’s self-censorship. Television is a household item in almost every home in the Arab world and consequently screen productions have a high viewership. TV in the Arab world is part of the public sphere and language use has to be decent even if the programmes are shown in late time slots. Translators have to look for ways to deal with culturally sensitive elements, taking into account

Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World

49

the viewers and their values and expectations, and linguistically managing any problematic or taboo expressions. The three countries examined in this chapter are not necessarily consistent and homogeneous and what may be socially acceptable in Lebanon may be unacceptable in Egypt. However, the subtitles that translators produce are commissioned by TV channels that will normally broadcast them via satellite to all Arab countries. Therefore, translators need to consider what is culturally (un)acceptable in the Arab world at large. Adhering to some cultural expectations may enter into conflict with the law. For example, Article 61 of the Emirati Printing and Publication Law no. 15 of 1980 stipulates that the Arabic translation of films ‘must be true to the dialogue’, which means that the instances of deletion and substitution widely found in the Arabic subtitles of many programmes broadcast in UAE-based TV channels actually violate this particular article. Censorship in Arab countries is a crucial issue in the publishing and media sectors (Ginsberg & Lippard, 2010; Landau, 1958; Mostyn, 2002; Shafik, 2001). Egyptian censorship law bans offensive language related to religion, sexual innuendos and ‘obscene and indecent speech’ (Shafik, 2001: 33). In Lebanon, Article 12 of Law no. 104 prohibits the publication of reports, books, essays, pictures and news that do not comply with general morals. According to Article 57 of the UAE Printing and Publishing Law no. 15 of 1980, the showing of motion pictures is subject to the jurisdiction of the censorship committee, which may remove any improper scene that violates religious or social values. Legal constraints are partly based on cultural values and even though the value systems are not identical in all Arab countries, and legal stipulations are diverse in their scope and purposes, censorship levels tend to be quite similar and there seems to be an agreement to avoid the use of offensive language. The subtitles that are produced by translation agencies are not only subject to the laws where the translation agency is actually located but also to the legislation of the country where the broadcasting channel is based. Whether broad and implicit or precise and explicit, censorship guidelines tend to result in the translator avoiding direct translation of offensive language. In some instances, the legal constraints are not too strict but rather loose and subject to interpretation, as in the case of the Lebanese law that talks about ‘general morals’. The translator’s knowledge and familiarity with the TL culture would prove crucial when it comes to recognising and dealing with such expressions, though translation agencies and TV channels will normally issue their in-house and freelance translators with guidelines that they have to follow. In this context, translators tend to internalise certain behavioural practices that ultimately lead to selfcensorship as a form of negotiation with the social context (Chuilleanáin et al., 2009: 19). Self-censorship can be a byproduct of the translator’s intuitive or subconscious reaction to offensive language in order to accommodate the target culture standard of appropriateness.

50

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

The Manipulation of Subtitling The outcome of dealing with culturally sensitive expressions while having to take into account cultural and legal constraints, institutional guidelines and censorship regulations is that Arabic subtitles are largely manipulated in an attempt to mitigate potentially offensive elements. Manipulation occurs in the areas of religion, sexual expressions and references, body parts, alcohol and drugs, swearing and other expressions of foul language (Izwaini, 2015). References to religious figures are a sensitive area for Arab audiences, as it is considered profane to use the name of God or any of the prophets in an undignified way. God and religious figures are to be referred to with reverence and when the ST refers to them in a frivolous manner, they are never translated directly and other alternatives are found, as illustrated in Example 1: Example 1 Down here, I am God.

‫ﺃﻧﺎ ﺍﻟﺴﻴﺪ ﺍﻟﻤﻄﻠﻖ‬ [I am the absolute master]

God-complex.

‫ﻋﻘﺪﺓ ﺍﻟﺴﻠﻂﺓ‬ [Authority complex]

God of war.

‫ﺳﻴﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﺮﺏ‬ [Master of war]

Goddess of wisdom.

‫ﺳﻴﺪﺓ ﺍﻟﺤﻜﻤﺔ‬ [Lady of wisdom]

In the Arab world, Jesus is a prophet who should be referred to with reverence and Egyptian law, for example, forbids his representation in films (Shafik, 2001: 34). Therefore, any direct mention of him is normally manipulated: Example 2 Even if Jesus comes himself and asked me to do that.

‫ﺣﺘﻰ ﻟﻮ ﺗﻠﻘﻴﺖ ﺍﻟﻮﺣﻲ‬ [Even if I had got a revelation]

If you would like to have dinner with a personality dead or alive, who would it be? Einstein or Jesus?

‫ﺁﻳﻨﺸﺘﺎﻳﻦ ﺃﻭ ﻗﻴﺼﺮ‬ [Einstein or Caesar?]

When the ST includes references to taboo subjects, the translator intervenes to avoid mentioning the culturally sensitive element, as shown in the instance below where the generalisation strategy has been resorted to:

Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World

51

Example 3 I raise pigs.

‫ﺃﺭﺑﻲ ﺍﻟﺤﻴﻮﺍﻧﺎﺕ‬ [I raise animals]

Violent and explicit sexual scenes are irremediably subject to censorship, and they tend to be either completely removed from the films or linguistically modified, with sanitised expressions being used to tone them down into more acceptable language. Somewhat surprisingly, sexual references are not translated with standard euphemisms already used in the TL, such as ‫[ ﻳﻨﺎﻡ ﻣﻊ‬to sleep with], but rather they are subtitled by means of expressions that are even more metaphorical, such as ‫[ ﻳﻘﻴﻢ ﻋﻼﻗﺔ‬to have a relationship], which has eventually acquired a sexual connotation in everyday language because of its recurrent use in subtitling. This expression is indistinctly used to account for a wide range of English phrases that belong to different registers, like ‘to have sex’, ‘to have an orgasm’ and ‘to get laid’, resulting in an unnecessary levelling out of the subtitles. Other examples of sexual manipulation include translating ‘premature ejaculator’ as ً‫[ ﻣﺘﺤﻤﺲ ﺑﺎﻛ ﺮﺍ‬excited early] and ‘horny’ into ‫[ ﻣﻨﺪﻓﻊ‬agitated], which may lead to incoherent subtitles and confuse viewers because of their incongruous relationship with the rest of the conversation and the visual elements. Sensitive issues such as prostitution are manipulated by resorting to substitution and terms like ‘hookers’ get translated into ‫[ ﻓﺘﻴﺎﺕ ﺳﻴﺌﺎﺕ‬bad girls]. In one case when sex is explicitly mentioned, it gets substituted by ‫ﻣﻐﺎﺯﻟﺔ‬ [flirting], and in another case where it is implicitly referred to, it is replaced by a phrase that lacks the sexual reference of the original, as illustrated in the answer given by the wife below: Example 4 How he died? On top of me.

‫ﻛﺎﻥ ﻳﺒﺬﻝ ﻣﺠﻬﻮﺩﺍ‬ [He was exerting effort]

Another example of the management of sexual references comes from the Lebanese channel Future TV. In the Swedish film Jalla, Jalla, a couple decide to enact a role play to excite their sex life and the man plays a neighbour who knocks on the door asking for some coffee. After two lines, the woman bluntly asks him Vill du komma in och knula? [Do you want to come in and fuck?], which is translated into ‫[ ﻫﻞ ﺗﺮﻳﺪ ﺃﻥ ﺗﻤﻀﻲ ﺍﻟﻮﻗﺖ ﻣﻌﻲ؟‬do you like to spend time with me?]. Whereas the ST is an explicit invitation to have sex, using a vulgar word and bringing an abrupt end to the role play, the TT is a courteous invitation to spend some time together, although the sexual association is implicit. Changing the vulgar expression in the ST into a nice invitation in the TT not only results in a shift of register but also enters into conflict with the funny abrupt twist of the plot.

52

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

Words for body parts tend to be dealt with by resorting to generalisation. The culturally unacceptable ST element is thus manipulated into a general, more acceptable term as seen below: Example 5 Ass

‫ﺃﺳﻔﻞ ﺍﻟﻈﻬﺮ‬ [Lower part of the back]

Machine guns do not add one inch to your dick.

‫ﺍﻷﺳﻠﺤﺔ ﻻ ﺗﺰﻳﺪ ﻣﻦ ﺭﺟﻮﻟﺘﻚ‬ [Weapons will not add to your manhood]

She does not have a dick.

‫ﻓﻬﻲ ﻟﻴﺴﺖ ﺭﺟﻼ‬ [So-she is not a man]

If you touch my boobs.

‫ﺇﺫﺍ ﻟﻤﺴﺘﻨﻲ‬ [If you touch me]

The direct mentioning of alcohol and drugs is also circumvented, usually with the help of generalisation. Thus, ‘drugs’ is translated into ‫ﻣﻤﻨﻮﻋﺎﺕ‬ [prohibited items] whereas alcoholic drinks tend to be subtitled into the superordinate ‫[ ﴍاب‬beverage]: Example 6 It is gin and tonic, nothing special.

‫ ﻟﻴﺲ ﺷﻴﺌﺎ ﻣﻤﻴ ﺰﺍ‬،‫ﺇﻧﻪ ﺷ ﺮﺍﺏ ﻋﺎﺩﻱ‬ [It is a usual beverage, nothing special]

The status of being drunk is usually conveyed with expressions in which the side effect of ingesting alcohol is highlighted, such as ‫ﺗﺮﻧﺢ‬ [being wobbly], or changing ‘she was drunk’ into .‫[ ﻟﻢ ﺗﻜﻦ ﻭﺍﻋﻴﺔ‬she was not conscious]. Insults and offensive designations of people are also mitigated and their derogative nature is attenuated by resorting to words and expressions that belong to a higher, literary register and are not very common in everyday conversation, such as translating ‘asshole’ with ‫[ ﺃﺣﻤﻖ‬fool], or they are altogether deleted. When the ‘f word’ is used as an intensifier to show anger, frustration or discontent, it is usually omitted, but if its deletion is problematic, because it stands as a single utterance in the ST, then it is usually translated into a pragmatically equivalent word such as ً ‫ ﺗﺒ ﺎ‬or ‫ﺍﻟﻠﻌﻨﺔ‬, both of which roughly mean ‘damn’. When dealing with swearing, an interesting point is that a literal translation can, on occasions, lead to a solution in which no swearing is present in Arabic. The naming of God or Jesus Christ is considered blasphemous in English-speaking cultures, whereas in their translation into ‫[ ﻳﺎ ﺇﻟﻬﻲ‬my god] they become a mere interjection.

Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World

53

Translation Strategies Gottlieb (2004) suggests that subtitling is a form of foreignisation, a concept originally proposed by Venuti (1995: 20) in the following terms: ‘a foreignising method, an ethnodeviant pressure on those [target culture] values to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text’. However, when it comes to dealing with taboo language, Arabic subtitling does not heed the source culture and its language, but rather it caters to the value system of the target culture in a clear instance of domestication. However, since subtitling is semiotically foreignising – with the retention of the ST visuals and soundtrack – the euphemistic domestication of taboo expressions and references may in practice be ineffective if the audience’s knowledge of the SL allows them to recognise the true offensive nature of the dialogue exchanges, or when non-verbal channels display that nature, though some scenes may be excised if censors consider them too provocative. Within the context of Arabic subtitling, translators deploy different strategies to filter out culturally sensitive expressions that may clash with the target culture morals and its legal requirements, including generalisation, substitution and deletion. Generalisation consists of choosing a general lexical item in the TL to account for a specific one in the ST, as in the examples dealing with body parts and alcohol. Substitution, which resorts to a less offensive partial synonym or a completely different expression, is used to deal with religious and sexual references and expressions. Deletion is the other strategy activated by subtitlers to do away with offensive expressions, especially swear words and lexical items that imply sexual activity. Table 3.1 summarises the scope of these strategies. As previously mentioned, one of the outcomes of the persistent application of these strategies to avoid the offensive nature of the ST elements is the loading of certain Arabic words and expressions with connotations that they originally did not have. One such example is the word ‫[ ﻋﻼﻗﺔ‬relation], which has been deployed in Arabic subtitling to translate a myriad of words and expressions related to sex, thus gaining

Table 3.1 Strategies to deal with offensive language in Arabic subtitles Area

Translation strategies

Alcohol and drugs

Generalisation

Body parts

Generalisation

God and religion

Substitution, deletion

Sexual references

Substitution, deletion

Social designations

Substitution

Swearing

Substitution, deletion

54

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

a sexual association that it originally did not have, and risking confusing viewers when used in its literal, asexual meaning in subtitling.

The Impact of Manipulation The manipulation of offensive terms results in the following four features found in Arabic subtitles: levelling out, register shift, failure to convey the pragmatic meaning and incoherence. Arabic subtitles tend to be levelled out as a range of synonymous SL expressions that are considered culturally sensitive in the target culture end up being translated with the same battery of mitigated terms. For example, the word ‫[ ﺳﺎﻗﻄﺔ‬fallen] is used to account for both ‘whore’ and ‘hooker’, while ‫[ ﻗﻮﺍﻡ‬figure] frequently replaces the English terms ‘boobs’ and ‘ass’. The adjective ‫[ ﻣﻨﺤﺮﻑ‬deviating from the right and proper] is used as a onefor-all translation when dealing with a number of SL words such as ‘fetish’, ‘gay’, ‘homosexual’, ‘paedophile’ and ‘pervert’. The toning down of the ST discourse brings along a shift in the register of the TT, whereby the original’s informality, explicitness, intimacy, rudeness and/or vulgarity shifts into formality, distance, implicitness and politeness in the subtitles. Example 7 contains some examples that demonstrate the marked shift taking place in language use, characters’ attitudes and their relationships to the rest of the cast: Example 7 I love you like a son of a bitch.

‫ﺃﺣﺒﻚ ﻣﻦ ﺃﻋﻤﺎﻕ ﻓﺆﺍﺩﻱ‬ [I love you from the bottom of my heart]

I worked my ass to get there.

‫ﻋﻤﻠﺖ ﺑﺠﻬﺪ ﻛﺒﻴﺮ‬ [I worked with great efforts]

You’re born, you take the shit.

‫ﻋﻨﺪﻣﺎ ﺗﻮﻟﺪ ﺗﺒﺪﺃ ﺍﻟﻤﻌﺎﻧﺎﺓ‬ [When you are born, suffering begins]

When subtitles are mitigated, they often fail to convey the pragmatic meaning of the original. According to Gambier (2002: 215), offensive French words are usually mitigated in Finnish subtitles, which end up lacking force and becoming exclamations of mild irritation. Generally speaking, manipulation practices at play in the TT lead to a totally different meaning from the original ST one. Curses, insults or swearing tend to be lost in the TL subtitles, thus failing to convey the intended pragmatic meaning of the original ST, be it humour, rudeness, irony or sarcasm, and failing also to produce the intended impact on the TL audience. On occasions, sociocultural identities are nullified by totally changing and normalising them, as when a lesbian introduces her partner as ‘my wife’ and the Arabic translation becomes ‫[ ﺭﻓﻴﻘﺘﻲ‬my female friend], which in turn has

Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World

55

the negative effect of deflating the humorous nature of the scene. In some cases when the subtitler has opted for the literal translation of blasphemous expressions such as ‘God’ or ‘Jesus Christ’, the Arabic solution is devoid of the pragmatic meaning of the original swearing and it becomes just an exclamation, an expression of amazement and shock. Similarly, there is no rude tone, and as a result no pragmatic equivalence, in the translation of ‘stick this up your ass’ into ‫[ ﺗﺤﻤﻞ ﻫﺬﺍ‬endure this]. The example from the Swedish film cited in the section ‘The Manipulation of Subtitling’ shows that the funny dimension of the dialogue exchange, which is very much dependent on the blunt usage of the vulgar expression, is not conveyed by the translation as a result of the substitution strategy used. Similarly, in Example 8, the obliteration of the explicit sexual reference, which in Arabic becomes general praise to compliment a woman for her qualities, has a negative impact on the coherence of the scene in which it is uttered: Example 8 You’re the best blow job in town.

TT: ‫ﺃﻧﺖ ﺍﺑﺮﻉ ﺍﻣ ﺮﺃﺓ ﻓﻲ ﺍﻟﻌﺎﻟﻢ‬ [You are the most skillful woman in the world]

On occasions, viewers may get confused as what is said does not make sense from a logical point of view, or does not relate to what they see on the screen. When words like ‘God’ or ‘Christ’ are used disrespectfully or have been stripped of their divine provenance in the ST, subtitlers tend to choose the word ‫[ ﺍﻟﻘﺪﺭ‬destiny] as a translation alternative as, in Arabic culture, God governs destiny. However, the adoption of this translation solution can lead to incoherent subtitles such as the ones below: Example 9 A sad song why Christ died.

‫ﻟﻤﺎﺫﺍ ﻣﺎﺕ ﺍﻟﻘﺪﺭ‬ [Why destiny died]

Do you think God knew what he was doing when he created women?

‫ﻫﻞ ﺗﺨﺎﻟﻮﻥ ﺃﻥ ﺍﻟﻘﺪﺭ ﻛﺎﻥ ﻳﻌﺮﻑ ﻣﺎﺫﺍ ﻳﻔﻌﻞ ﺣﻴﻦ ﺧﻠﻖ ﺍﻟﻨﺴﺎء؟‬ [Do you think that destiny knew what it was doing when it created women?]

Conclusion Watching TV in the Arab world can be seen as an activity pertaining to the public sphere rather than the private one, in which several stakeholders participate with their own agendas. Censorship, whether governmental, corporative or due to a translator’s self-censorship, plays a substantial role in the shaping of Arabic subtitles. Not only is subtitling subject to the laws

56

Part 1: Transferring Language and Culture in AVT

governing translation in the country where the language service provider is located but, given its potential to reach most of the nations in the Arab world, it also has to consider possible censorship barriers in other Arab countries. In the case of audiovisual translation into Arabic, adherence to the value system of the TL culture, the need to accommodate certain cultural sensitivities and to use sanitised language in films and TV programmes has preponderance over the content and form of the original text, which leads to the manipulation of Arabic subtitling and results in the toning down and transformation of vulgar and obscene SL into decent and well-mannered expressions in the TT. The manipulation patterns show that professional subtitlers resort to different translation strategies that help them avoid the direct rendition of certain terms by choosing non-offensive TL lexical items. Such manipulative practices have the effect of projecting quite a different image of the original dialogue and SL culture and, as observed in the examples cited above, talking openly about God, prophets, body parts, sex, alcohol and drugs, as well as swearing, are the main linguistic areas affected. The end result of this type of interference materialises in the levelling out of the subtitles, the shift in register, the failure to convey the pragmatic meaning of some utterances and the diegetic alteration of perfectly coherent scenes in the original production into rather incoherent ones in the subtitled version.

Acknowledgement This chapter reports on research carried out thanks to a grant (number FRG13-3-07) from the American University of Sharjah.

References Billiani, F. (2009) Censorship. In M. Baker and G. Saldanha (eds) Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edn; pp. 28–31). London: Routledge. Chen, C. (2004) On the Hong Kong Chinese subtitling of English swearwords. Meta 49 (1), 135–147. Chen, C. (2005) On the Hong Kong Chinese subtitling of the erotic dialogue in Kaufman’s Quills. Quaderns, revista de traducció 12, 205–224. Chuilleanáin, E. Ní, Ó Chuilleanáin, C. and Parris, D. (eds) (2009) Translation and Censorship: Patterns of Communication and Interference. Dublin: Four Courts. Fong, G. (2009) The two worlds of subtitling: The case of vulgarisms and sexuallyoriented language. In G. Fong and Au, K. (eds) Dubbing and Subtitling in a World Context (pp. 39–61). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. Gambier, Y. (2002) Les censures dans la traduction audiovisuelle. TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Redaction 15 (2), 203–221. Ginsberg, T. and Lippard, C. (2010) Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema. Lanham: Scarecrow. Gottlieb, H. (2004) Language-political implications of subtitling. In P. Orero (ed.) Topics in Audiovisual Translation (pp. 83–100). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World

57

Izwaini, S. (2015) Translation of taboo expressions in Arabic subtitling. In A. Baczkowska (ed.) Impoliteness in Media Discourse (pp. 227–247). Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Landau, J. (1958) Studies in the Arab Theater and Cinema. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Lebanese Ministry of Information Web Site. See www.ministryinfo.gov.lb/main/ MediaLaws/ActNo.382.aspx (accessed 27 January 2017). Lung, R. (1998) On mis-translating sexually suggestive elements in English-Chinese screen subtitling. Bable 44 (2), 97–109. Mattsson, J. (2006) Linguistic variation in subtitling: The subtitling of swearwords and discourse markers on public television, commercial television and DVD. In M. Carroll, H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast and S. Nauert (eds) Proceedings of the Marie Curie Euroconferences MuTra: Audiovisual Translation Scenarios – Copenhagen 1–5 May 2006. See www.euroconferences.info/proceedings/2006_Proceedings/2006_Mattsson_ Jenny.pdf (accessed 27 January 2017). Mazid, B-E. (2006) English-to-Arabic subtitling: Some linguistic, ideological and pedagogic issues. International Journal of Arabic-English Studies 7, 81–100. Mostyn, T. (2002) Censorship in Islamic Societies. London: Saqi Books. Scandura, G. (2004) Sex, lies and TV: Censorship and subtitling. Meta 49 (1), 125–134. Shafik, V. (2001) Egyptian cinema. In O. Leaman (ed.) Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film (pp. 32–129). London: Routledge. UAE Federal Laws (2008) Beirut: Sader Publications. Venuti, L. (1995) The Translator’s Invisibility. London: Routledge.

Part 2 Reception and Process

4 Do Shot Changes Really Induce the Rereading of Subtitles? Agnieszka Szarkowska, Izabela Krejtz and Krzysztof Krejtz

Introduction In this chapter, we look into the question of whether shot changes induce the rereading of subtitles, as is generally believed both in the subtitling profession and in literature on subtitling. The widely quoted argument as to why subtitles should not be displayed over shot changes is, in the words of Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007: 91), that ‘studies in eye movements […] have shown that if a subtitle is kept on screen where there is a cut change, the viewer is led to believe that a change of subtitle has also taken place and starts re-reading the same onscreen text’. In The Guidance on Standards for Subtitling, the Independent Television Commission (ITC, 1999: 12) – the former British regulator, the predecessor of today’s Ofcom – states that ‘subtitles that are allowed to over-run shot changes can cause considerable perceptual confusion and should be avoided. Eye-movement research shows that camera-cuts in the middle of a subtitle presentation cause the viewer to return to the beginning of a partially read subtitle and to start re-reading’. Arguing along those same lines, although commenting on subtitles displayed over changes between scenes, rather than between shots, Robson (2004: 184) states that ‘research has shown that if a caption remains on the screen when the scene changes behind it, viewers will automatically start reading the caption over again, assuming that the caption changed with the scene’. None of these authors, however, provides any reference to eye tracking studies confirming such claims.

Previous Eye Tracking Research on Subtitles and Shot Changes Despite numerous mentions of this sort of subtitle rereading in the literature (Adamowicz-Grzyb, 2013), actual studies on the subject are difficult to come by. We have only managed to identify a single eye tracking

61

62

Part 2: Reception and Process

study that explicitly discussed the issue of subtitling and shot changes prior to our own research: the study by de Linde and Kay (1999: 16), who state that ‘eye movement research (Baker, 1982) has suggested that shot changes which occur while a subtitle is being shown cause viewers to return to the beginning of a partially read subtitle and start re-reading’. De Linde and Kay studied the influence of shot changes on the subtitle reading process among 10 deaf and 10 hearing viewers, with the sound turned off for all participants. Testing the hypothesis that ‘programmes with a high number of shot changes would disrupt reading behaviour by provoking frequent deflections to the image’ (de Linde & Kay, 1999: 66), they analysed the effects of shot changes on the number of words per fixation, the number of regressions (i.e. the rereading of words or characters) and the amount of rereading (i.e. the number of times an entire subtitle was reread). Deflections are defined by the authors as the ‘number of times a viewer’s eyes deflected away from the subtitle area to focus on the image’ (de Linde & Kay, 1999: 61). During the experiment, participants wore a head-mounted eye tracker (EMR-V Eye Gaze Monitor) and watched authentic video material with subtitles produced by the BBC, consisting of two short clips from two TV programmes. The first clip, from a documentary about human ancestry, had 1.3 shot changes per subtitle on average, whereas the second, from a programme showing how an advertisement was made, had 3.5 shot changes per subtitle on average. However, it is worth noting that the narration of the second clip was largely related to what was being shown on screen, and so, in a way, invited viewers to look at the image more frequently. We feel that this observation might explain, at least partially, the results that de Linde and Kay obtained: viewers of the second clip had many deflections from the subtitles to the image, which the authors interpreted as being due to the influence of the numerous shot changes. Another potentially problematic issue is the fact that the number of shot changes per subtitle in this second clip was unrealistically high: there was one subtitle that stretched across nine shot changes and another that was kept on screen across five. It is very unusual in professional subtitling for so many shot changes to occur under a single subtitle, although the actual situation naturally depends on how material is edited. The authors offer, as a general finding of their study, the conclusion that subtitles displayed over shot changes induced more deflections to the image. Such subtitles also resulted in fewer fixations per word or, to put it differently, in a higher number of words per fixation in both groups of participants (de Linde & Kay, 1999: 67). This is explained by the authors as stemming from the fact that since shot changes made the participants look back to the image, they had less time to read the subtitle, which in turn ‘enforced quicker reading’ (de Linde & Kay, 1999). Interestingly, de Linde and Kay made no claims as to whether on encountering a shot change viewers’ eyes went back to the beginning of a subtitle to reread it.

Do Shot Changes Really Induce the Rereading of Subtitles?

63

The present chapter reports on the third and final part of our work investigating the influence of shot changes on subtitle reading. In two previous papers (Krejtz et al., 2013; Szarkowska et al., 2015), we examined the question of whether such subtitles actually end up being reread when viewers encounter shot changes in various film genres. In Szarkowska et al. (2015), we looked at subtitles in a feature film and in two different documentaries, displayed at the reading speed of 15 characters per second (cps) and viewed by 67 deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing participants. In Krejtz et al. (2013), we analysed subtitles displayed at 12 cps in news programmes and documentaries among 71 viewers, with and without hearing impairments. Having analysed a number of eye tracking measures, including the number of fixations, first fixation duration (FFD), subject hit count and transition matrix before and after shot changes, we did not manage to find evidence supporting the rereading of subtitles displayed over shot changes. In this chapter, we analyse eye tracking measures and reading speeds across different film genres among 137 deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing participants with a view to establishing whether subtitles crossing shot changes triggered any process of rereading in these participants. We understand ‘rereading’ as going back with one’s gaze to the beginning of the subtitle, either from the image or from the middle of the subtitle area. Before we present our results, however, we will briefly outline the background regarding the professional subtitling rules concerning shot changes, which constitute the rationale for this study.

Shot Changes and Subtitling Principles As we have noted, it is widely considered that in the best case subtitling scenario, a subtitle should not be displayed over a shot change. One of the first rules taught at subtitling courses is to ‘avoid creating subtitles that straddle a shot change (i.e. a subtitle that starts in the middle of shot one and ends in the middle of shot two)’ (Williams, 2009: 14). Abiding by this rule, as stated by Robson (2004: 193), can be quite time-consuming for the subtitler since ‘a significant amount of a captioner’s time is spent tweaking captions to make sure that they appear exactly synchronised with shot changes (aka edits or cuts). This can be a painstaking process of stepping the video back and forth until you find the exact frame of the shot change’. The author refers here to software that does not offer automatic shot change recognition, although most professional subtitling software nowadays offers a shot detection functionality and the task is less onerous. The main reason for maintaining a subtitle over a shot change in the first place is usually a sound bridge, i.e. a situation when an actor’s voice can be heard over a shot change. According to the ITC (1999: 12), ‘some film techniques introduce the soundtrack for the next scene before the scene change has occurred’, and in such cases it is recommended that ‘if

64

Part 2: Reception and Process

possible, the subtitler should wait for the scene change before displaying the subtitle’. On the other hand, ‘the subtitler should […] attempt to insert a subtitle on a shot change when this is in synchrony with the speaker’ (ITC, 1999: 12). Again, the subtitler’s final decision in such case is probably influenced by other factors, such as whether the sound bridge is maintained within the same scene or between different scenes, the duration of the sound bridge, its importance for the plot and the like. As pointed out by Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007: 92), ‘respecting film cuts has become more of an issue as some of today’s fast moving films rely on editing techniques where cuts are frequent as a means to contribute to the dynamism of the action’. This is confirmed by Wildblood (2002: 41, in Sokoli, 2011: 121), who declares that ‘not going over cuts is the first thing a novice subtitler learns. How often we have to break this rule varies from production to production. Rarely do we get a film where we can fit more than 90 percent of the subtitles between cuts. I believe I always manage to squeeze 60 percent of them into a single shot’. While it is possible for a subtitle to cross shot changes within scenes, it is generally agreed that subtitles should not be displayed over cuts when scenes change, as recommended by Williams (2009: 14): ‘Never carry a subtitle over into the next shot if this means crossing into another scene or if it is obvious that the speaker is no longer around’. Ivarsson and Carroll (1998: 76) point to an important difference between two types of cuts: soft and hard, and their implications for subtitles. Soft cuts are those between different angles of the camera, but taken in the same place, or between people taking part in the same conversation (like shot-reverse shot sequence). Hard cuts, on the other hand, involve a change in place or time of action, as in scene changes. Unlike soft cuts, which ‘can be accommodated within the same subtitle’ hard cuts ought to be respected, so subtitles should not be displayed over them. One of the golden rules of subtitling is first and foremost, as stated in The Code of Good Subtitling Practice (Ivarsson & Carroll, 1998: 158), accurate synchronisation of speech and subtitles: ‘the in and out times of subtitles must follow the speech rhythm of the dialogue, taking cuts and sound bridges into consideration’. However, should there be any factors that make it impossible to avoid displaying a subtitle over a shot change, the text should appear on screen at least several frames before the shot change and it should remain on screen for at least the same amount of time (Magdalena Balcerek, personal communication). This is also confirmed by Ivarsson and Carroll (1998: 76), who argue that ‘for technical reasons it is also preferable to time the disappearance of subtitles for two to three frames before the cut to ensure they do not “hang”. This will prevent the irritating twitching effect’. Along the same lines, ITC (1999: 12) states that, ‘A subtitle should, therefore, be “anchored” over a shot change by at least one second to allow

Do Shot Changes Really Induce the Rereading of Subtitles?

65

Figure 4.1 Subtitles displayed on an audio wave: Grey rectangular boxes denote subtitles, vertical lines indicate shot changes (EZTitles subtitling software)

the reader time to adjust to the new picture’. This is also in accordance with the BBC Online Subtitling Editorial Guidelines (Williams, 2009), which recommend that: subtitles match shots as closely as possible. It is likely to be less tiring for the viewer if shot changes and subtitle changes occur at the same time. Many subtitles therefore start on the first frame of the shot and end on the last frame. If a subtitle ends before a shot change or starts after a shot change, there should be a gap of at least 1 second, preferably 1.5 seconds, between the subtitle and the shot change. (Williams, 2009: 14) For the reasons outlined above and to ensure the ecological validity of the experiment, in our study we only took into consideration subtitles that were anchored over shot changes for at least 20 frames before the shot change and 20 frames after. The graph in Figure 4.1 shows what is considered appropriate and inappropriate anchorage of subtitles over shot changes. De Linde and Kay (1999) do not provide any information on how their subtitles were anchored over shot changes, but given that the average number of shot changes per subtitle in the second clip was 3.5 and that certain subtitles were displayed over 5 and 9 shot changes, one can infer that the recommended minimum distance between and after the shot change was not respected. Given the vast body of subtitling rules regarding shot changes, we decided to empirically test the hypothesis that shot changes induce the rereading of subtitles, i.e. to verify whether viewers go back with their eyes to the beginning of a subtitle in order to reread it.

Methodology Participants The total number of participants examined in this chapter was 137, out of whom 43 were d/Deaf,1 34 were hard-of-hearing and 60 were hearing. In this study, we decided to test three groups of participants: hearing, hard-ofhearing and deaf, as they are all recipients of the subtitling currently offered

66

Part 2: Reception and Process

on Polish television. With the advent of digital TV and legal regulations obliging broadcasters to provide subtitled programmes, the vast majority of subtitled content available on TV in Poland is subtitling for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing (SDH), not regular subtitling for hearing viewers. Therefore, hearing people who want to access TV content with subtitling (and switch off the voiceover translation) are in fact made to watch SDH. What we considered of utmost importance in this study was its ecological validity: we wanted participants to watch subtitled videos as they would normally do at home. This meant that the videos were played with the sound on, making it possible for hearing and hard-ofhearing participants to take advantage of their hearing or residual hearing, respectively. Having the sound turned on was also important for studying shot changes and subtitle rereading. All the subtitles crossing the shot changes were displayed synchronously with ongoing dialogue. The fact that the film dialogue continued over cuts was in fact the reason why these subtitles were displayed over shot changes. While this may not be crucial for the deaf, we believe it may have been important for the hearing and the hard-of-hearing.

Materials Each viewer watched a set of 13 self-contained clips. In this chapter, we analyse a set of interlingual English-to-Polish subtitles from two videos: the feature film Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003) and the documentary Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2004). The duration of the clips was 1 minute 10 frames and 1 minute 5 frames, respectively. The frame rate for all the clips was 25 frames per second (fps). All participants were shown clips with sound, subtitled at the speed of 12 or 15 characters per second (cps), and all subtitles were prepared in the EZTitles subtitling software according to the following settings: • • • • • •

Maximum number of characters per line: 38 Minimum interval between consecutive subtitles (chaining): 4 frames Minimum subtitle duration: 1 second (i.e. 25 frames) Maximum subtitle duration: 6 seconds (i.e. 150 frames) Minimum number of frames before cut: 3 frames Minimum number of frames after cut: 3 frames

In our study, when subtitles went over a shot change, they did so over one shot change only and they remained within the same scene. In other words, while some subtitles crossed film cuts within a scene (soft cuts), none of them crossed film cuts between scenes (hard cuts). All the subtitles crossing shot changes in our study were displayed to match the dialogue which continued over soft cuts.

Do Shot Changes Really Induce the Rereading of Subtitles?

67

Procedure Participants were informed that they were going to watch different clips in English with interlingual subtitles in Polish. They were asked to watch the clips carefully as they would have to answer three comprehension questions after each clip. The real nature of the experiment, i.e. the analysis of the subtitle reading processes, was not revealed. Participants were tested individually. First, they were asked to sign a written consent form to take part in the study. Then, they were seated in front of a monitor with an eye tracker, where 9-point calibration and validation were performed. The test began with a few questions eliciting demographic data such as age, degree and onset of hearing loss, the use of hearing aids and implants, language of everyday communication, type of school attended and proficiency in English. After viewing each clip, participants had to answer three closed-ended comprehension questions related to the content of the clip. At the end of the test, each participant received a promotion kit from the University of Warsaw.

Eye movement recording Participants’ eye movements were recorded with the SMI RED eye tracking system at the sampling rate of 120 Hz. Participants sat in front of a 21-inch monitor at a distance of about 60 cm. The eye tracker manufacturer’s software BeGaze was used in the data analysis. For statistical analysis and data preparation we used SPSS.

Results and Discussion In what follows, we first discuss a number of eye tracking measures with a view to establishing the necessary analytical tools to examine whether subtitles are indeed reread on shot changes, and then we present results and discuss the data. When attempting to verify the research hypothesis, i.e. whether people reread subtitles on shot changes, we first had to define what it means in eye tracking terms that subtitles are or are not reread. We therefore made an assumption that rereading subtitles implies going back with one’s gaze to the beginning of the subtitle after the shot has changed. This, in turn, could be measured by comparing the number of fixations made to this area before and after the shot change. Consequently, we drew areas of interest (AOIs) at the beginning of subtitles that went across cuts (Figure 4.2), both before and after the shot change. Defining the AOIs on the subtitle beginning enabled us to compare the percentage of viewers who looked at the subtitle beginning before and after a shot change – the eye tracking measure known as the ‘subject hit count’.

68

Part 2: Reception and Process

Figure 4.2 Example of an area of interest on subtitle beginning (BeGaze software)

We were also able to compare the number of fixations on both AOIs to examine if there were any differences between reading subtitles before and after shot changes. We assumed that a higher percentage and a higher or similar number of fixations on the subtitle beginning after a shot change would mean that viewers reread the subtitles, whereas a lower subject hit count and a lower number of fixations would imply that viewers did not return their gaze to subtitle beginnings in order to read them again.

Subject hit count We first examined the subject hit count, i.e. the percentage of participants who at least once looked at the beginning of the subtitle before and after the shot change. After averaging the scores for all the subtitles, it turned out that 72% of the participants looked at the subtitle beginning before the shot change. However, only 30% looked at the subtitle beginning after the shot change. It needs to be noted here that this result does not mean that one third of those who looked at the beginning of the subtitle looked there again after a shot changed. Rather, out of all the participants (137 people), some looked at the subtitle beginning before the shot change (72% or 98 people), some looked at this area after the shot change (30% or 41 people) and only some of them looked at the subtitle beginning both before and after the shot changed. The eye tracking software does not make it possible to see in the subject hit count measure who the people looking at the particular AOI were. This means that using this measure we are unable to state how many of those participants who looked at the subtitle beginning before the shot change looked there again after the shot change.

Do Shot Changes Really Induce the Rereading of Subtitles?

69

If it was true that people reread subtitles on shot changes, then the percentage of those who looked at the subtitle beginning before the shot change would be similar to that after the shot change. What we found, however, was a significant drop in overt visual attention to the subtitle beginning after a change of shot, which may indicate that the vast majority of subjects did not reread the subtitles.

The number of fixations We then examined the number of fixations on the beginning of subtitles before and after a shot change. If viewers indeed reread subtitles on shot changes, this would be reflected in a similar (or higher) number of fixations before and after the shot change. In contrast, a smaller number of fixations on the subtitle beginning after a shot change may indicate that viewers do not reread subtitles. Accordingly, a 3×2×2×2 mixed design analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the number of fixations, with viewers (hearing, hard-of-hearing, deaf) and reading speed (12 cps vs. 15 cps) as between-subject factors, plus two within-subject factors: shot change (before vs. after shot change) and type of clip (documentary vs. feature film). We observed a main effect of shot change (before/after shot change), F(1, 131)=316.82, p