Module 10: Translation Today
  Lecture 37: Dubbing and Subtitling in Films
 


Conclusion

The translators of screen texts are literally and metaphorically invisible, as they are never acknowledged in the credits of a film. Translation studies specialists also have not considered them seriously. However, it can be seen that they are undertaking a complex translation process that, if not done carefully, can jeopardize a project that has crores of rupees invested in it. These translators are completely target-oriented and will have to know the target language and culture very well. This is more so because a film script consists almost entirely of everyday conversation that is non-literary. It will have slang and swear words, and expressions that are unique to a particular speech community. The songs in Indian movies pose challenges of a different sort. The screen translator, then, is faced with challenges that a literary translator is not. The translation that she provides has to capture the essence of the original. She has the freedom to take a few liberties with the original but not to a great extent. This very freedom calls for a wide-ranging knowledge of the target language with all its linguistic peculiarities and turns of expression. Only a translator with this sort of background can be creative in her use of the translator’s freedom.

Besides these aspects are the larger issues that lie behind dubbing and subtitling as forms of translation. As O’Connell points out, there are many questions that this field raises, which have to be examined in detail: “What commercial and political agendas underpin the selection and translation of material for the screen? What are the financial, cultural and linguistic implications of the expanding use of translated audiovisual material in individual countries and general?” (124). It is high time that dubbing, subtitling and other forms of screen translation were retrieved from the near anonymous state they are in now, and placed within the academic realm of translation studies.


Assignments

  1. What are the main types of screen translation? Evaluate the respective merits and demerits of each.
  2. Select a film or television show of your choice. Attempt dubbing and subtitling and analyze the difference in approach between the two.


References

Baker, Mona and Brano Hochel. “Dubbing”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Ed. Mona Baker. 1998. London: Routledge, 2001: 74 – 77.

Gottlieb, Henrik. “Subtitling”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Ed. Mona Baker. 1998. London: Routledge, 2001:  244 – 247.

O’Connell, Eithne. “Screen Translation”. A Companion to Translation Studies. Eds. Piotr Kuhiwczak and Karin Littau. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd, 2007: 123 – 133.