Cognitive approach to audio description

The article presents theoretical and methodological approaches relevant for the research on audio description (AD) and exemplifies the application of these approaches by studies on live audio description of films conducted at Lund University. A cognitive, reception-oriented perspective on AD and the framework of embodied cognition are in focus. It is claimed that previous research on scene perception, scene description and mental imagery can be preferably adopted in the study of AD. It is further argued that an interdisciplinary framework, integration of theoretical approaches and triangulation of methods is necessary in order to investigate such a complex phenomenon as AD

The problem with culture

It is natural that a fairly young discipline such as AVT should embrace the cultural turn in translation studies as a vantage standpoint and look at problems of language and culture as closely intertwined. The cultural turn in audiovisual translation has meant going beyond the study of translation patterns normally found in descriptive research (Chaume 2018). This chapter will offer insights on three loci of culture in translation: cultural references, always a fruitful area of research, but one which contains areas deserving of further investigation; intralinguistic culture clashes, that is those potentially conflicting encounters which involve individuals from different cultures sharing the same language; and finally, allusions in film and TV dialogue to what we often understand as ‘culture’ proper, that is high-end or low-brow products of art, literature, music and so on, which constitute a special problem but also a special opportunity for translators