Media and translation. An interdisciplinary approach.

Review of the book "Media and translation. An interdisciplinary approach"

Translations, transcreations and transrepresentations of India in the Italian media

This paper explores the dynamics of cultural representation through the media, making special reference to the translation of cultural traits that occur in the cinema and television. By taking into account several films and television commercials which were broadcast in Italy over a five-year span, featuring variously complex and stratified translations of India, an attempt is made to define and explore the different guises which translation can take when the object of transfer is not merely language and its purpose is not merely communication. The transformations which have been identified in the use and transfer of Indian cultural traits through the Italian media are here discussed in terms of translation, transcreation and transrepresentation.L’article explore les dynamiques des représentations culturelles dans les médias, en mettant l’accent sur la traduction de traits culturels qui apparaissent au cinéma et à la télévision. En nous appuyant sur plusieurs films et publicités télévisées diffusées en Italie pendant environ cinq ans et présentant des traductions diverses et stratifiées de l’Inde, nous essayons de définir et d’explorer les différentes formes que peut prendre la traduction lorsque l’objet du transfert n’est pas seulement la langue, et pas simplement la communication. Nous discuterons ici des transformations dans l’utilisation et le transfert de traits culturels indiens vers les médias italiens en termes de traduction, de transcréation et de transreprésentation

Disney films: reflections of the other and the self

In the last decade of the 20th century most Disney animated features focused on the depiction of cultural otherness. Despite an apparent interest in spreading the knowledge of distant cultures, these films rely almost exclusively on conventional cultural metonymies to build the representations of the Other. More significantly, references to otherness are overwhelmed by the countless visual and verbal elements which belong to the narrating culture. If the «biased» nature of the cultural encounters which take place in these Disney films can be easily evinced from an analysis of the original screenplays, it is only by taking into account their Italian translations that it becomes fully evident. Thus, by comparing excerpts from the original and the Italian versions of the films, this paper sets out to explore the threefold cultural encounter which takes place in them, ultimately highlighting the complexity which lies in the transfer of all-specific American references rather than the generalized, universally-known visual and verbal clichés which are used to evoke the Other.En la última década del siglo XX, la mayoría de las películas de dibujos animados de Disney se centraron en la descripción de la alteridad cultural. A pesar del aparente interés por difundir el conocimiento de culturas distantes, estas películas se apoyan exclusivamente en metonimias culturales convencionales en su construcción del Otro, mientras que las referencias a la alteridad se ven desbordadas por los innumerables elementos visuales y verbales pertenecientes a la cultura narradora. Si la naturaleza sesgada de los encuentros culturales presentes en estas películas es fácilmente reconocible tras un mero análisis de los guiones originales, tal hecho se hace totalmente evidente a través de las traducciones al italiano. Mediante la comparación de fragmentos originales y su traducción italiana, este artículo explora el encuentro cultural a tres niveles que se produce, subrayando la complejidad inherente en la transferencia de las referencias específicamente estadounidenses, en contraste con los clichés visuales y verbales universalmente conocidos y de carácter generalizante utilizados para evoca al Otro

Films, subtitles and subversions

Numero annuale della rivista internazionale Linguistica Antverpiensi

Visual and narrative priorities of the blind and non-blind: eye tracking and audio description.

L'articolo \ue8 gi\ue0 presente sul sito Routledge/Taylor and Francis online. Verr\ue0 inoltre inserito nel numero 22:1 in versione cartacea

Translating Humour in Audiovisual Texts

Recensione del volume pubblicato nel 2010

Translation as craft, as recovery, as the life and afterlife of a text: Sujit Mukherjee on translation in India.

Sujit Mukherjee passed away in 2003, having been an outstanding intellectual figure in India and beyond. A writer himself, but most of all a translator, Mukherjee contributed greatly to stirring the debate and reflection on translation in India. Although he quite humbly declared, on several occasions, that India never had such a thing as a theory of translation, his books and articles have traced the history of this activity and given shape to a metadiscourse on translation which is far from the abstractions of theories and full of the strength of the enlightened practitioner\u2019s point of view. Mukherjee\u2019s approach to the observation of translation practices is permeated by his modesty, his brisk simplicity and, above all, his relentless positivity. In his words, translation becomes a dynamic, pervasive and constructive practice, far from the subordinate and derivative essence so often ascribed to it by Western scholars. This paper brings to the fore the non-theories of Sujit Mukerjee and proceeds by discussing them along a chronological axis. Organized in three sections, the paper first analyses Mukherjee\u2019s viewpoint on translation in India before the British, to then move onto translation and the role of English during and after colonization. The third and final section offers a comparison between Mukherjee\u2019s ideas and reflections and those by three outstanding Western translation scholars

The layers of subtitling

AbstractThe study of subtitling, although widely practiced over the past 20 years, has generally been confined to comparative studies focusing on the product of subtitle translation, with little or no consideration of the conditions of creation and reception. Focusing on the process of subtitle production, occasional studies have touched upon the cognitive processes accompanying it, but no study so far has related these processes, and the resulting products, to various degrees of translators' competence. This is precisely what this essay does, focusing on the different layers of subtitle translation provided for two different films and in two different contexts. By analysing the first and second versions of subtitle translations, we shall reflect on the acquisition, and application, of different subtitling competences

Reviewing directionality in writing and translation: notes for a history of translation in the Horn of Africa.

Bringing together history and the study of translation, this article focuses on Christian missionary activities in Eritrea and Ethiopia, with special reference to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It presents and discusses their impact on the shaping and reshaping of cultures and identities in a dynamic interrelation with the African agenda. Though focusing on relatively recent events, this article also takes into account the traditions of evangelization and translation that populated the cultural and religious landscape of the region over a timespan of more than 16 centuries. Focusing on orally transmitted knowledge, written documents, the advent of printing in the area, and all the other activities which have made the dissemination of the missionaries' Christianity possible, this article aims to overcome the common assumption that colonialism stands as an absolute historical divide, and to suggest a revision of the notion of directionality typically applied to the observation of translation phenomena in Africa and other colonial contexts, whereby horizontality is associated with before and verticality with after the colonial period. Reflecting upon instances of multidirectional writing and translation processes from a historical perspective, with special reference to Christian missionary activities in the Horn of Africa, the ultimate aim of this article is to highlight the importance of interdisciplinary research and its great potential in casting light over events and practices which are still largely unexplored

Multidisciplinarietat en traducció audiovisual

The two pillars around which the breaking up of monodisciplinarity is reorganized, in Ostreng's words, can be said to apply to, and portray, the evolution of Translation Studies (TS) and Audiovisual Translation Studies (AVTS). The hybridization and fragmentation of the "parent discipline" (TS), as a consequence of its very expansion and contamination, has in turn resulted in the emergence of sub-disciplines. AVTS, as a derivative research field, has soon achieved the "status" of a full-fledged discipline, attracting numerous researchers and leading to the organization of countless conferences, seminars, university courses and publications. Subsequently, the coming of age of AVTS in the last decade or so has coincided with a more decisive move into the territory of other disciplines, without any imperialistic ambition but rather in search of more solid instruments for the analysis of ever-changing scenarios, techniques and activities. Looking at the plethora of publications and conferences devoted to AVT and its study over the past two or three years, one cannot but notice a major thrust towards multidisciplinarity: even though it was probably never mono-, by asserting its own identity as a truly multi-disciplinary research field, AVTS has signed its own evolution.Els dos pilars al voltant dels quals es reorganitza aquest trencament de la monodisciplinaritat, en termes d'Ostreng's, poden aplicar-se i, al mateix temps, serveixen per a il·lustrar l'evolució dels Estudis de traducció i els Estudis de traducció audiovisual. La hibridació i la fragmentació de la "disciplina bàsica" (els Estudis de traducció), conseqüència de l'expansió i contaminació, ha tingut com a resultat el naixement de subdisciplines. Els Estudis de traducció audiovisual, com a àmbit d'investigació derivat, han assolit en poc de temps l'estatus de disciplina per se, han atret l'atenció de nombrosos investigadors i son el tema central d'una munió de congressos, seminaris, cursos universitaris i publicacions. Aquesta majoria d'edat dels Estudis de traducció audiovisual, aconseguida durant l'ultima dècada, ha coincidit amb una certa incursió en territori d'altres disciplines, no amb una visió imperialista sino més aviat amb la idea de la recerca d'instruments mes solids per a l'anàlisi d'escenaris, tècniques i activitats en continua transformació. Si ens fixem en l'abundància de publicacions i congressos dedicats a la TAV dels ultims dos o tres anys, l'impuls cap a la multidisciplinarietat és una obvietat: tot i que, segurament, els Estudis de traducció audiovisual mai no han estat multidisciplinaris, en adquirir una identitat pròpia i mostrar-se com a ambit de recerca multidisciplinari, s'han obligat a mantenir-se en constant evolució