The Journal of Specialised Translation Issue 1
January 2004
Jorge Díaz Cintas
University of Surrey Roehampton, London
Subtitling: the long journey to academic acknowledgement
ABSTRACT
The present article is part of a wider translation project from Spanish carried out
by Juan Abad, Judith Harling, Yuka Miyakita, Mark Seager and Christina Wiggins,
students at the University of Surrey Roehampton.
Audiovisual translation seems to have been absent from academic exchanges on
translation until very recently. Focusing solely on subtitling, this article starts by
taking a look at the reasons behind this state of affairs. It then presents the
reader with a detailed account of the research that has taken place in this field,
both outside and in Spain. After an overview of the topics, figures, publications
and conferences that have had an impact on subtitling, the paper points to the
direction of possible avenues of research. Although the future seems very
promising for this field of research, the article finishes with a section highlighting
some of the challenges that lie ahead of us.
KEYWORDS
Subtitling, audiovisual translation, screen translation, translation historiography.
1. Introduction
A clear paradox exists which emphasises the surprising imbalance
between the little research on audiovisual translation and its
enormous impact on society. In numerical terms, the translation
carried out in the audiovisual realm is the most important
translational activity of our time. Firstly, because of the high
number of people it reaches, mainly through television. Secondly,
because of the large quantity of translated products which cross
over to other cultures: documentaries, films, news, debates,
concerts, television series, etc. Thirdly, because of the immediacy of
its reception: television, cinema, DVD. In a context where the
exchanges are so great, and in a period in which all the experts are
in agreement that subtitles are bound to play an increasingly more
important and prominent role in our societies, the elaboration of
detailed studies which analyse the history and socio-cultural
implications of this activity seems imperative. The predicted
dominance of subtitling seems justified by virtue of cost – more
economical than dubbing –, and execution speed since dubbing
requires the participation of more professionals. I will now comment
on some of the factors which have contributed to this academic
neglect.
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2. Research difficulties
The recurring question of whether we are faced with a case of
translation or adaptation has led many people to avoid this field of
study altogether, as they consider it outside the scope of
translation. Authors like Whitman-Linsen (1992:17) have echoed
this situation and have highlighted an urgent necessity “to dispel
the disdain of literary intelligentsia, who seem to dismiss film
translating and the degree of difficulty involved in it as not worthy
of their attention”. Many of the translation concepts and theories
that have been historically articulated cease to be functional when
scholars try and apply them to AVT. This has traditionally led
scholars to focus on the analysis of less complex empirical
phenomena, instead of complicating their academic life with the reelaboration of existing postulates or the development of new
theories capable of accounting for the specificity of AVT. This lack of
research is responsible for the perception of AVT as a marginal
activity, mainly if compared to the translation of canonical works
such as the Bible and literary classics. Throughout history,
translation has played a very important role in cultural exchanges,
and yet its study is relatively recent. Even in its most glamorous
and canonical dimension, translation has been absent from
academic exchanges and so it is not surprising that studies into AVT
are even more neglected.
Another obstacle lies in the polymorphic nature of audiovisual
programmes. It is not as laborious to work with two written texts, in
the source and target languages, as it is to work with dialogue lists,
videotapes or DVDs, television sets, video players, etc.
Furthermore, we encounter the added difficulty that access to work
materials is often restricted. The film scripts published by certain
companies are usually pre-production versions, and they rarely
coincide with the dialogue of the actors on the screen. The same
occurs with the dialogue lists found on the Internet. One of the first
tasks when carrying out research is to check that printed and
soundtrack dialogue coincide. Otherwise, we shall have to transcribe
it from screen, a tedious and time-consuming task. The ideal would
be to work with the dialogue continuity – post-production version –
in which all dialogue is transcribed verbatim as it is heard on
screen. These documents do exist but are not sold commercially,
and some producers and distributors can be reluctant to hand out
copies of them.
Even if we have a complete and detailed dialogue list, we would still
need a printed copy of the subtitles. Subtitles of foreign films are
never commercialised and the transcription from screen is
necessary, unless we can rip them or we know the person who has
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The Journal of Specialised Translation Issue 1
January 2004
done the translation and they provide us with a copy. We will have
to confirm that the subtitles given to us coincide with those onscreen, since they could have been reworked by an adaptor. Some
translators may refuse to offer their translations for various
reasons. It can be that they only carried out the translation, leaving
the composition of subtitles in the hands of another professional. Or
it could be that the rights to the translation have been handed over
to the distributor or subtitling studio, and they have no control over
them. In other situations, it is a case of mere personal reluctance.
There are too many studies in which a source text and target text
are compared, with the sole apparent objective of criticising the bad
solutions reached in the translation and to propose alternatives
which are indisputably better in the eyes of the scholar. It goes
without saying that approaches of this type do not foster good
relations between professionals and academics working in
translation. Subtitling is a team activity and it makes it difficult to
ascertain who has been ultimately responsible for the translation
that we as an audience consume. On more than a few occasions,
the translator is accused of a badly translated subtitle when in fact
he is not responsible for what we read on the screen. The study of
the discrepancies between the translation supplied by the translator
and the adjusted subtitles is an area of research which could shed
light on the power struggles taking place during the decisionmaking process.
When we want to analyse the dubbed and the subtitled versions of
the same film, the method of work can be somewhat cumbersome.
When the product is in video format, one has to work with two
television sets in order to see the two tapes at the same time, or
with a single television set and look for alternative ways of working.
One possibility is to record the dubbed version onto an audio tape
that one can listen to at the same time as viewing the original
subtitled version of the film.
This combination of difficulties is the reason why some researchers
may end up studying audiovisual productions that are not
necessarily the most appealing or the most fruitful in terms of
research. The lack of access to the necessary material can
sometimes force the choice of other objects of study easier to
obtain. However, and compared to dubbing, the acquisition of
research material in the case of subtitles is relatively easy, as the
tape always contains the original soundtrack as well as the subtitles
in the target language.
One of the main obstacles in our research resides in the duality of
media. The message is transmitted audio+visually. In order to be
able to appreciate the success or failure of a certain solution, not
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The Journal of Specialised Translation Issue 1
January 2004
only do we need to know what is said in the original, but we should
also know how it is said and what is being done in the original. For a
long time now, translation scholars have highlighted the need of
knowing the co-text and the context to be able to assess a
particular translation. If we want to investigate products of an
audiovisual nature, we should turn to academic discourses which
also combine the visual with the auditory. And although it is certain
that in conferences and talks it is relatively easy (and economical)
to give a presentation supported by visual aids, it is not so easy
(and far less economical) for an article or book to be accompanied
by audiovisual material. The researchers then have to rely on the
long and detailed explanation of what is happening on screen so as
to be able to contextualise the solution reached, with the risk of
spending more time locating the reader than commenting on the
virtues of the translation.
It is obvious, however, that there have been studies on AVT and
that there will be many more. The high interest in conducting
research into this area can be seen as a natural and expected
development linked to the power that the image holds in our society
and that Lambert (1990:228) summarises in the following way:
“[L]es langues, les textes, même les littératures sortent de plus en
plus du royaume des livres pour entrer dans le royaume de
l’audiovisuel”. Every day we see more publications and conferences
that focus on AVT. Given the youth and stamina of most of the
researchers, the future of this branch of study could not be more
promising.
3. Research into AVT, research into subtitling
When it comes to studying the different AVT modes, there has been
a tendency to group them all together, when on occasions their
study would gain in depth and substance if they were carried out
individually. Although they share common characteristics, the
differences that distinguish them call for a more specific approach.
The reduction is fundamental to subtitling but not so much to
dubbing; the translation of exclamations and interjections is not a
problem in subtitling, but it is critical in dubbing; the shift from oral
to written does not occur in dubbing; the problems of linguistic
variation are practically irresolvable in subtitling; the translation of
expletives is much more urgent in subtitling than in dubbing; the
coexistence of the two languages in the subtitled version has an
impact on the translation of subtitles that has no parallel in
dubbing, etc.
The fact that subtitling has always been absent from the main
translation theories does not mean that it has not been researched.
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Gottlieb (2002) has compiled more than 1300 bibliographical
references on interlingual subtitling published between 1929 and
2000, although most of them have appeared in recent years. Entries
refer only to subtitling with a small number of works that focus on
dubbing or voice-over but dedicate a substantial part to subtitling.
A direct relationship between quality and quantity cannot obviously
be established, and it is true that there tends to be some
fragmentation and repetition of contributions in our area. Many of
the articles are brief and focus on somewhat stale ideas such as the
confrontation between dubbing and subtitling. There is also a
scattering of material that has appeared published in cinema and
translation journals, as well as in newspapers and weekly
magazines. On occasions we come across manuscripts that have
been passed around without ever having been published (Laks 1957
and Minchinton 1986). Sometimes they are in-house documents
that never reach the hands of the general public. Where it concerns
monographic books, most of them have been published by small
publishing houses, where the distribution is usually very erratic. In
the early 1990s, the European Institute for the Media (EIM) in
Düsseldorf had a section in its library dedicated to AVT.
Unfortunately, it stopped compiling these publications and at
present there is no other international organisation having taken
over the reigns. The scattering of material has not only made the
bibliographical search complicated for a researcher starting in this
area, but it also means that some scholars have carried out their
work without knowing what others had already done in the field.
Given the limitations of this paper, the two following sections have
to be selective with regards to the choice of names and works that I
will deal with. My aim is to offer a detailed view of the contributions
and scholars that, in one way or another, have had a great impact
on research done solely and exclusively into subtitling. For this
reason, the names of certain researchers have deliberately been
excluded as they have not studied subtitling at all, or only in
passing. The advantage to me is that it is a relatively new
subdiscipline to which few scholars have so far dedicated their
efforts. The disadvantage is that it is an area attracting more and
more interest, making it difficult to keep up to date with everything
that is published.
4. Research outside of Spain
The first academic articles to deal with AVT from a translational
perspective appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A special
edition of the magazine Babel, published in 1960 under the title
Cinéma et traduction, marks a symbolic starting point, even though
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The Journal of Specialised Translation Issue 1
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already in its first volume of 1956 the journal Le linguiste/De
taalkundige had dealt with the subject very superficially in a couple
of pages under the title Traduction et Cinéma.
One of the first, if not the first, pioneering works on subtitling was
carried out by Laks (1957) who wrote Le sous-titrage des films. Sa
technique. Son esthétique. Unfortunately, it is a manuscript that
was never published but it seems to have circulated with a certain
ease, as it appears referenced in a great number of subsequent
publications.
The decades of the 1960s and 1970s are characterised by a
pronounced lethargy regarding subtitling, although some articles
appear on dubbing. We have to wait until 1974 to come across a
significant article that focuses solely on subtitling. Written by
Dollerup, the article delves into the different types of errors that
arise in the subtitling of television programmes from English to
Danish. Dollerup’s greatest contribution is his passing mention of
the pedagogical value that subtitles have in the learning of foreign
languages. This area has since been researched by authors such as
Danan (1992) and Caimi (2002), but it still requires a more
systematic and detailed analysis.
One of the articles that has left the deepest impression has been
that of Marleau (1982). Titled “Le sous-titres… un mal nécessaire”,
it was later taken up in Spanish by Mayoral Asensio (1993). After
offering a diachronic vision of the use of language in cinema,
starting with the invention of cinema and the use of intertitles,
Marleau focuses on the different problems that surround this
practice and categorises them under four headings: technological,
psychological, artistic-aesthetic and linguistic. He offers some
orthotypographical recommendations on the presentation of the
subtitles and transcends the linguistic dimension by talking about
economic factors, the film industry and the different professionals
that take part in the process.
An article published in the same year is that by Titford which,
despite being a brief contribution, has made a significant impact.
The author introduces the concept of constrained translation while
talking about subtitling, as he considers that the problems that
surround this translation practice “derive essentially from the
constraints imposed on the translator by the medium itself”
(1982:113). With the focus of the article on subtitling, Titford does
not seem to be conscious of the terminological value of his
proposals and it will be Mayoral Asensio, Kelly and Gallardo (1988)
who will make this concept of constrained translation applicable to a
myriad of translation practices.
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Reid is a prolific writer at the end of the 1970s and throughout the
1980s. From a distinctive professional perspective, her main
interests focus on the relationship between the public and the
subtitles, as well as on the figure of the subtitler. Her article of 1978
is an apology in defence of subtitles, which she considers to be the
intelligent solution.
In 1987, under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union
(EBU), a Conference on Dubbing and Subtitling took place in
Stockholm. It was the first congress ever held on the subject and
acted as a trigger to the explosion of conferences and publications
on AVT. One of the major achievements was a proposal of nonbinding guidelines to facilitate the exchange, purchase and sales of
television programmes to be subtitled. They can be found in
Ivarsson and Carroll (1998:160).
From a Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) approximation,
Delabastia (1989) offers a detailed study of the various signs and
channels that make up a film and have to be taken into account
when dubbing and subtitling. In his search for the norms that
underlie translation behaviour, the focus of his study is primarily
cultural, but without renouncing the analysis of translation as a
process. Of special interest is his list of questions that should guide
the inquisitive mind of every AVT researcher.
In the same year and with a similar title to Delabastia’s article but
in French, Lambert published a panoramic work on the power that
mass media has over our contemporary societies and, more
specifically, on the role played by language and translation. He
holds the debateable opinion that the developments that we are
experiencing will bring about the end of monolingualism and the
arrival of multilingualism. From a subtitling point of view, his article
of 1990 is more interesting and offers a detailed account of the
various characteristics that define the subtitling discourse.
AVT’s golden age starts in the 90s. In this decade, we witness a
true (r)evolution in our field. Curiously, this new period also marked
a change of language, with French practically disappearing in
academic exchanges and with the almost exclusive, dangerous
dominance of English.
At the turn of the decade two essential books appear almost at the
same time. Luyken, in collaboration with four professionals from
different European countries, publishes the book Overcoming
Language Barriers in Television in 1991. A project financed by the
EIM, it analyses the different translation modes applied to the
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linguistic transfer of audiovisual products, although the emphasis is
underlined in the subtitle of the book: “dubbing and subtitling for
the European audience”. The approach is markedly professional,
and for the first time, statistics about the volume of translated
programmes, labour costs and audience preferences are compiled in
a systematic way.
A year later, in 1992, the first book ever to deal exclusively with
subtitling, Subtitling for the Media, came out in English translated
from Swedish. Ivarsson had worked as a subtitler for Swedish public
television, and the book benefits from his exhaustive knowledge of
the professional details. He also offers a very detailed history of the
technical aspects of subtitling and an overview of subtitling for the
deaf and hard-of-hearing. The subtitle of the work, A Handbook of
an Art, is symptomatic of the kind of approach that has prevailed in
this field and that, in my opinion, has not been particularly
beneficial. This conception of art serves only to distance subtitling
from educational centres. It seems to transmit the romantic idea of
an artistic talent that one has or does not have, but can hardly be
acquired. Some people are born with the gift to be a subtitler and
others are not. In 1998, with the help of Carroll, a revised second
edition was published, benefiting from a rigorous update with the
incorporation of the latest technical developments, such as DVD,
and with a title much more sober and concise: Subtitling.
Gambier is one of the leading figures in AVT. He has devoted a
great deal of effort to the classification of the various AVT modes,
the skills of would-be subtitlers and the reception of AVT. He has
taken part in most of the conferences organised in this field, has
been president of the few international associations on AVT (FITMedia and ESIST), and has edited a large number of collective
volumes: (1995), (1996), (1998) and (2001).
Tomaszkiewicz (1993) has written and published her doctoral thesis
in French, and it focuses on the linguistic operations that underlie
the practice of subtitling from French into Polish. After an
introduction to the general problems of translating for cinema, she
carries out a detailed analysis of the two strategies that in her
opinion characterise the subtitling of films: elimination and
condensation. Kovačič has generally researched the linguistic
aspects of subtitling. Her most interesting contribution is the
application of the theory of relevance to the study of subtitling
(1994).
Dries had a particularly productive period in the mid 90s when she
worked as a researcher in the EIM. Apart from compiling research
material on AVT and making it available in the library of the EIM,
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Dries published articles on the problems and obstacles that linguistic
diversity in Europe presents for the free circulation of audiovisual
products made in Europe. One of her objectives is the raising of
linguistic awareness of all professionals working in the audiovisual
industry. Thanks to her, we have a fairly detailed mapping of the
different national practices of mainland Europe, in which she makes
room for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In her most
interesting contribution (1995), she recommends a series of
guidelines aimed at promoting the production and distribution of
dubbed and subtitled programmes.
Gottlieb also begins his career in the research of subtitling in the
90s. He is definitely one of the scholars that has most formally
theorised about this area, having dealt with the linguistic dimension
of subtitles, the translation of idioms from English into Danish, the
training and teaching of subtitling and, more recently, the
corruption of the Danish language by English through subtitled and
dubbed films. The volumes of 1997 and 2001 collate the vast
majority of his articles to this date.
In 1999, the book The Semiotics of Subtitling, by de Linde and Kay,
was released. The work centres on the intralingual subtitling
(English-English) that is carried out in the UK for the deaf and hardof-hearing, delving in the main characteristics that define this kind
of subtitling, the interaction between text and image, the
differences between an adult and an infant audience and the
reception of subtitles. It is a reference work for all those interested
in this other type of subtitling.
In an attempt to go beyond the linguistic level and to set AVT firmly
in the target culture, Karamitroglou (2000) publishes his doctoral
thesis, Towards a Methodology for the Investigation of Norms in
Audiovisual Translation. Using concepts such as polysystem and
norms, he proposes a model of analysis that he himself applies, in a
case study, to find out the preliminary norms that determine the
choice of subtitling or dubbing when translating children’s
programmes in Greece. His main contribution lies in the fact that he
makes use of very up to date translation concepts and applies them
to the field of AVT, extending their functionality and expanding the
possibilities of study in our field to the professional, commercial and
product reception dimensions.
At international level, it can be said that AVT in general and
subtitling in particular are in a good state of health. There have
been numerous conferences on AVT, with their emphasis generally
on subtitling, since a great deal of speakers are from countries in
the north of Europe where subtitling is the most common practice of
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AVT. Most of these contributions have been published in
proceedings. Without wanting to be exhaustive, it is worth
mentioning the following:
1995. Communication audiovisuelle et transferts linguistiques,
Strasbourg. Edited by Gambier (1995).
1995. Traduzione multimediale per il cinema, la televisione e la
scena, Forli. Edited by Heiss and Bollettieri Bosinelli (1996).
1996. Languages and the Media, Berlin. Edited by Gambier (1998).
1997. Multimedia and Translation, Rimini. Edited by Gambier and
Gottlieb (2001).
1997. Seminar on Audio-visual Translation, University of Geneva.
1998. Languages and the Media II, Quality and Standards in
Audiovisual Language Transfer, Berlin. Edited by Gambier and
Gottlieb (2001).
2000. Languages and the Media III, Converging Markets and
Multimedia, Berlin.
2001. Cinema: Paradiso delle lingue. I sottotitoli nell’apprendimento
linguistico, University of Pavia. Edited by Caimi (2002).
2001. International Conference on Dubbing and Subtitling in a
World Context, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
2002. The Art of Film Translation, Institute of Contemporary Arts,
London.
2002. Languages and the Media IV, Viewers, Languages and
Marketing, Berlin.
2004. In So Many Words: Language Transfer on the Screen. Federal
University of Surrey, London.
The International Federation of Translators has been one of the first
organisations to recognise AVT’s specificity with the creation in
1987, on the occasion of the FIT World Congress in Maastricht, of
the Committee for Media Translators and Interpreters (www.fitift.org/media).
It is also worth highlighting the creation in 1995 of the European
Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST), which serves
as a meeting and reference point for researchers, teachers and
professionals of AVT. Despite the inclusion of the adjective
European in its name, the association has a clear international
vocation, as shown by the membership of people from other
corners of the world, such as America, Asia and Australia. One of
the most ambitious projects that the association has carried out has
been its International Comparative Subtitling Project. Three short
scenes from different genres were distributed to companies from all
over the world with the aim of profiling the different national
practices in subtitling. They were asked to subtitle the three scenes,
applying the same conventions that they usually apply when
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subtitling their programmes. They were also asked to answer a
short questionnaire. Around 50 companies worldwide took part in
the project, representing a total of 18 languages and more than 20
different countries. The material is available for those interested in
using it for research purposes and can be obtained by contacting
the secretary of ESIST (www.esist.org).
5. Research in Spain
The situation for subtitling is good and for AVT is buoyant, with
dubbing as the most researched area in Spain. It could be asserted
that in many aspects, Spanish researchers are carrying the torch at
an international level. The dynamism observed in Spain, visible as
much in the large number of publications that have appeared, as in
the proliferation of congresses and public and private university
courses, is currently unparalleled by any other country.
One of the first researchers to study subtitling in a systematic and
rigorous way has been Mayoral Asensio who begins to publish at the
early date of 1984. His article in collaboration with Kelly and
Gallardo (1988) has been one of the most quoted in our field.
Working with the term constrained translation – coined by Titford in
1982 – the authors establish a taxonomy of the various degrees of
subordination that the different translating practices are subjected
to. His seminal article from 1993 gives a complete vision of
subtitling and it is essential reading for anyone who wants to start
out in this field. In 2001, he writes a detailed account of the
research done on the subject of AVT and offers a listing of training
courses in Spain and other European countries.
Chaume is another of the main figures in the study of AVT. Without
focusing exclusively on subtitling, he has published numerous
articles on the teaching and learning dimensions, the profession, the
semiotic value of the image and the way cinematographic language
works. In an academic context in which, however sad it is, scholars
from translation and cinema studies tend to ignore each other,
Chaume’s success has been in trying to bridge the gap between
both disciplines by foregrounding the interdisciplinarity of AVT. The
highest exposure of this praiseworthy approach is found in his
works of 2000 and 2003.
My doctoral thesis (1997), the first one in Spain to deal exclusively
with subtitling, follows the Descriptive Translation Studies
postulates and is a detailed study of this cultural practice that
transcends the merely linguistic approach. I have written numerous
articles ranging from the analysis of subtitles that have appeared in
certain films, to the proposal of models for the analysis of subtitles,
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as well as contributions on the teaching of subtitling. La traducción
audiovisual: el subtitulado (2001) was the first book ever to be
published on this subject in Spanish. Teoría y práctica de la
subtitulación: inglés/español (2003) is a pioneering book that
comes with a DVD with clips from several films and a subtitling
programme for people to create and simulate their own subtitles.
An area that has seen a dramatic rise in the number of researchers
has been the writing of doctoral theses. Fuentes Luque (2000)
analyses the reception of humour in one of the Marx Brothers films,
both in the dubbed and the subtitled versions. Santamaría Guinot
(2001) focuses on the difficulties that arise when subtitling cultural
references from English into Catalan. The many doctoral theses in
the process of being written in Spain and other countries serves to
highlight the interest that AVT is awakening in young researchers
and allows us to be optimistic about the future.
Many conferences have taken place in Spain and although none of
them has focused exclusively on subtitling, all of them have made
room for papers and panels on the subject. Most of these
conferences have published volumes of the proceedings:
1993. Transvases culturales: literatura, cine, traducción, University
of the Basque Country, Vitoria. Edited by Eguíluz et al. (1994).
1996. Simposium de localización multimedia, University of Granda.
Edited by Mayoral and Tejada (1997).
1996. Trasvases culturales: literatura, cine, traducción 2, University
of the Basque Country, Vitoria. Edited by Santamaría et al. (1997).
1999. I Tertulia de trujimanes: traducción audiovisual, University
Alfonso X El Sabio, Madrid.
1999. V Jornades sobre la traducció: la traducció audio-visual al
segle XXI, University Jaume I, Castellón. Edited by Agost and
Chaume (2001).
1999. Novas perspectivas na traducción audio-visual, University of
Vigo.
1999. I Jornadas de doblaje y subtitulación, University of Alicante.
Edited by Sanderson (2001).
1999. Trasvases culturales: literatura, cine, traducción 3, Vitoria.
Edited by Pajares et al. (2001).
2000. II Jornadas de doblaje y subtitulación, University of Alicante.
Edited by Sanderson (2001).
2001. I Congreso SETAM, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.
2001. III Jornadas de doblaje y subtitulación, University of Alicante.
Edited by Sanderson (2002).
2002. Traducir para la pantalla. II Seminario Interdisplinar sobre
Traducción Especializada, University Europea de Madrid.
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2003. Jornada de traducción audiovisual:
fantásticas, University Autònoma de Barcelona.
January 2004
las
traducciones
Interest in AVT has brought about the creation in 1999 of the
Seminario de Estudios sobre la Traducción Audiovisual y Multimedia
(SETAM), a thematic group that brings together five Catalan
speaking universities with interests on the research, teaching and
professional dimensions of AVT. The association is open to people
from
other
national
and
international
universities
(www.vives.org/setam).
It is also worth mentioning the success of the e-group TRAG,
created by Castro Roig in 2000. This e-mail list is exclusively aimed
at AVT translators, in Spanish or any other language. It is a very
dynamic and active group, in which the participants help each other
by contributing possible translation solutions and by discussing
issues of common interest, such as translation fees, the search for
new
clients
or
the
existence
of
interesting
glossaries
(www.xcastro.com/trag).
6. Avenues of research
If we want our area of study to have the academic recognition it
deserves, we need the publication of less anecdotal and more
substantial works. We need to expand our research horizons.
Lefevere establishes himself as one of the most fervent champions
in favour of a more broadminded approach to research in
translation:
Much of what we are saying has been said already, albeit in a different kind
of jargon. This should not deter us, however. Looking back at the long
tradition of thinking on translation in Western Europe, we realize the
relatively recent attempts to limit discussions of translation to what pertains
to constraints of language only, signally fail to do justice to the complexity
of the problem (1992:xiv).
His proposal defends the study of translation as a cultural and not
simply a linguistic phenomenon. Areas such as the power struggle
between different participants, the conscious manipulation of a
target text, the post-colonial and gender – both gay and feminist –
perspectives, are fields of research that have already been dealt
with in the translation of literature and poetry, but have yet to
make their entrance into the audiovisual world.
Theoretical frameworks such as the one known as Descriptive
Translation Studies are an ideal platform from which one can launch
oneself into this adventure. The writings of authors such as Holmes,
Even-Zohar, Toury, Hermans and Lefevere, amongst others, contain
the principles by which this line of thought is articulated. For the
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translation scholar, concepts such as norms, polysystem and
patronage are a heuristic tool that opens up new avenues of study,
gives strength to the theoretical model of analysis and allows us to
work with a certain weight.
When Toury (1985:16) writes that “no empirical science can make a
claim for completeness and (relative) autonomy unless it has
developed a descriptive branch”, he is in fact proposing an avenue
of study that until then had not been exploited sufficiently and since
then has proved to be very productive. His theoretical framework is
developed in his 1995 book, in which he calls for a discipline with
the objectives of “[d]escribing, explaining and predicting
phenomena” (1995:1). Such a discipline needs to develop a
descriptive branch capable of giving account of the real, not ideal,
nature of translations that have been done and consumed.
The descriptive approach is contrary to the more traditional
approach of discussing translation on a more abstract and less
empirical plane. In Toury’s opinion (1995:1), “what constitutes the
subject matter of a proper discipline of Translation Studies is
(observable or reconstructable) facts of real life rather than merely
speculative entities resulting from preconceived hypotheses and
theoretical models”. An opinion shared by other authors such as
Lambert (1995:24) who states that “what Descriptive Translation
Studies is supposed to offer [is] a panoramic location […] of
translational phenomena. Before trying to understand, to analyze
or – especially – to evaluate them we can better map them”. The
key term here is map. A systematic and detailed mapping of what
really happens in the world of subtitling is sine qua non to be able
to investigate both the norms that regulate the profession as well as
those which underline the translator’s behaviour. It would be very
productive to carry out work, in research groups, that analyses
sufficiently broad corpora and allows the derivation of substantial
conclusions. An example of this type of research is the TRACE
project, a database about translations that were censored in Spain
from the Civil War up until 1985 (trace@vc.ehu.es).
To approach dubbing and subtitling from a mere linguistic perspective
is clearly insufficient. By transcending the linguistic dimension, the
postulates put forward by DTS have the advantage of placing
translation scholars in a position that allows them to channel their
academic efforts from an interdisciplinary perspective. Translation is
viewed as an intercultural rather than interlinguistic communication
act, confirming Simon’s statement (1996:134) that “it was only a
question of time until cultural studies ‘discovered’ translation”. This
discovery has come from authors sitting on the fence between DTS
and cultural studies, such as Bassnett and Lefevere (1998). DTS is a
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relatively homogeneous and flexible theoretical construct, full of
potential for any AVT study. Works carried out in this field by
authors such as Ballester Casado (2001), Díaz Cintas (1997),
Gutiérrez Lanza (1999), Karamitroglou (2000), Remael (2000) and
Sokoli (2000) amongst others, are clear examples.
The linguistic and cultural approaches must not be seen as
conflicting paradigms but, rather, complimentary. By focusing on
the object of study from many angles we can gain a better
understanding of translation and translating. The problem arises
when priority is given to one of these dimensions at the exclusion of
the other and the solution comes by integrating both approaches.
One of the most lucid observations in this respect comes from
Harvey (2000:466), who claims that “[t]ranslation is not just about
texts: nor is it only about cultures and power. It is about the
relation of one to the other”. The analysis of the multiple relations
that the translated product establishes with the recipient society can
be as interesting and enriching as the linguistic study. Borrowing
Harvey’s words (2000:466), what the translation scholar needs is:
[A] methodology that neither prioritizes broad concerns with
power, ideology and patronage to the detriment of the need to
examine representative examples of text, nor contents itself with
detailed text-linguistic analysis while making do with sketchy and
generalized notions of context.
Studies that combine the linguistic dimension with feminist, postcolonial, gender or power and culture perspectives are highly
profitable from the point of view of the researcher and as yet they
have not been dealt with in the world of audiovisual translation.
Another problem that has hindered the study of film translation
resides in the subordinate nature that it has been afforded within
other academic disciplines. Film encyclopaedias either completely
ignore, or make only limited efforts to cover language transfer,
despite the irony that this transfer has been occurring ever since
the invention of cinema. When a film is analysed through the eyes
of a critic from another culture, the emphasis falls mainly on such
aspects as editing, plot development, the representation of
stereotypes, etc. What on first sight would appear to be
complimentary disciplines usually end up disregarding each other in
forums of debate. Our research tends to be limited to publications
and conferences focussing on translation, and AVT is rarely
mentioned at cinema conferences. Closer links between these two
disciplines would be desirable and in this respect works such as
Chaume (2000, 2003) and Remael (2000) are most welcome.
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Approaches to translation which have made a large impact on areas
such as literary translation, are still yet to be applied to subtitling.
Pragmatics and discourse analysis have afforded us concepts full of
potential such as theme, rheme, coherence, cohesion, field, tenor,
etc. Studies on politeness that take the linguistic dimension into
account as much as the image are currently lacking. Other areas
that could motivate future researchers are:
1) 1) The compilation of corpora based on films or other
audiovisual programmes.
2) 2) The analysis of the subtitling of one same programme into
two different target languages, for example the subtitling of a
Spanish film into French and German.
3) 3) The analysis of Spanish subtitles for programmes originally
made in languages other than English, to see whether or not
they follow the same conventions as when subtitling from allpowerful English.
4) 4) Comparative studies of subtitling at various levels
(corporative, regional, national, international) with the
objective of establishing a set of guidelines for what could be a
code of good subtitling practice.
5) 5) Studies on the reception of subtitles to establish the
appropriate reading speed, the easiest conventions, etc.
6) 6) A historiography of subtitling.
7) 7) Comparative studies from a diachronic perspective to see
how subtitling was done in the past, and how it is done
nowadays.
8) 8) Contrastive analysis of the subtitling of a film or
programme for different media, such as television, cinema,
video or DVD.
9) 9) Comparison between the subtitling of films and the
subtitling of other audiovisual genres such as documentaries
or TV series.
10) 10) Studies on the teaching and learning of subtitling.
11) 11) Pragmatic and linguistic analyses of areas posing difficulty
to the subtitler, such as taboo expressions and linguistic
variation.
12) 12) Studies on the subtitling of children’s programmes.
13) 13) Corruption of the Spanish language by the infiltration of
English through subtitled programmes.
14) 14) Subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, from
intralingual (Spanish-Spanish) as well as from interlingual
(English-Spanish) perspectives.
These points cover just a few ideas for topics that could be
researched in the field of subtitling. The possibilities of study are
many and varied. Research into AVT is fashionable and seems to
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have a very promising future. But we must not let ourselves be
blinded by the good signs. There are many challenges at various
levels – educational, academic, professional, social, cultural etc. – of
which we must be aware.
7. Challenges in research
The tension between theoretical and applied approaches is a
constant in the relationship between university and industry. It is a
situation that arises not only in the case of translation, but is also
encountered in other fields of learning. In my opinion, the solution
lies in a symbiosis that accommodates theory, practise and
teaching. It is of little benefit to us or our society to shut ourselves
away in an ivory tower and draw up theories with no empirical base,
to produce a practical work that has no theoretical base, or to teach
processes that have nothing to do with the reality of the workplace
and have no solid theory behind them. To gain visibility and to
assure the social welfare of translation, we need to join forces and
avoid the creation of an unnecessary schism between the three
dimensions, each as indispensable as the others.
It would be advantageous for research into subtitling to be at the
heart of the interdiscipline of translation, capable of reconciling the
linguistic and cultural paradigms. However, “the construction of an
interdisciplinary methodology is not straightforward, since few
researchers possess the necessary expertise in a wide range of
subject areas” (Munday 2001:189). At present, a large number of
AVT scholars are young, requiring time and maturity to expand their
cultural knowledge. With these two ingredients it is very likely that
their efforts will crystallise into works of great importance in the not
too distant future.
There is no doubt that AVT is in fashion among students and
researchers. However, what seems to be an unequivocal sign of
good health could also give rise to some disadvantages. On an
employment level, it runs the risk of saturating the market, forcing
a fall in the fees charged. On a research level, the term audiovisual
is sometimes added with certain flippancy to pieces of work to make
them more attractive, when in reality what is presented is very
limited in its audiovisual specificity and could well be applied to
other areas of translation. Furthermore, the excessive publications
that focus on the same topics could also have a pernicious effect in
the long run. Too many contributions with little substance will not
be of any great benefit to AVT. What we need are works that open
up new avenues and touch upon hitherto unexplored topics.
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One of the most commonly recurring complaints in AVT has been
directed at the lack of interest shown by many academics towards
our field. In some cases it has led to the discipline of translation
being branded as elitist for been only interested in major works. In
AVT, we run the same risk. Most studies into subtitling concentrate
on films, forgetting a myriad of other audiovisual programmes that
are considered inferior, such as documentaries, cartoons or series.
This biased attitude has filtered through into the terminology that
we have come to use. Curiously, much has been said about
cinematographic translation, when films for the cinema are precisely
the most difficult to analyse because of their format and the
conditions in which they are projected. In fact, the majority of
studies are carried out with films recorded from television,
distributed in VHS, or, more recently, on DVD.
Most of the films analysed tend to be rather similar. They are highly
considered socially, are aimed at a particular audience and have
been directed by acclaimed filmmakers. This attitude can be blamed
to some extent on insecurity, or an inferiority complex, on the part
of the researchers themselves. We believe that our area of study is
marginal, and we try to rectify this by resorting to prestigious,
highly respected cineastes and programmes. We are only managing
to map out a very partial and limited reality of subtitling that cannot
hope to be representative of the world of subtitling. To complete the
task of achieving a global view, it is necessary to broaden our
horizons and study the subtitling of other programmes that enjoy
lesser cultural prestige.
When carrying out our analyses, we must do all we can to avoid
decontextualising the examples under scrutiny. In many cases, the
virtues and flaws of the translation only take into account the
linguistic dimension. We cannot forget that we are working with
products with audio and visual dimensions, and both must be taken
into account if we want to be fair when evaluating the final result.
What is said, but also how it is said are both important.
If we are aware of these challenges and know how to tackle them,
there is no doubt that the future of AVT in general and that of
subtitling in particular is very bright.
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Jorge Díaz Cintas works at the University of Surrey Roehampton,
where he is programme convenor of the BA/BSc Translation. His
main area of research is audiovisual translation. He is the author of
Teoría y práctica de la subtitulación (Barcelona: Ariel, 2003) a
multimedia project with a DVD incorporating clips from several films
and a subtitling programme. He is the president of the European
Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST). He can be
reached at j.diaz-cintas@roehampton.ac.uk
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