MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA
FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA
Diplomová práce
Brno 2006 Pavel Reich
Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
The Film and the Book
in Translation
Pavel Reich
Supervisor: PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová
Brno 2006
Hereby I declare that I have worked on this diploma thesis independently using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová for her ideas, inspiring guidance and kind assistance.
1. Introduction 7
2. Audiovisual Translation 8
2. 2. Subdivision of audiovisual translation 8
2. 3. Intralingual Audiovisual Translation 9
2. 3. 1. Subtitling for the hard-of-hearing and the deaf 9
2. 3. 2. Audio description for the blind 9
2. 3. 3. Live Subtitling (e.g. news broadcasts) 9
2. 3. 4. Surtitling for the opera and the theatre 10
2.4. Interlingual audiovisual translation 10
2. 4. 1 Interlingual Audiovisual Translation in the Past 11
2. 4. 1. 1. Early History 11
2. 4. 1. 2. History of Subtitling 11
2. 4. 1. 3. History of Dubbing 12
2. 4. 2. Interlingual Audiovisual Translation at Present 14
2. 4. 2. 1. Situation in Europe 14
2. 4. 2. 2. Subtitling vs. Dubbing 15
2. 4. 2. 3. Costs of Various Audiovisual Translation Types 16
2. 4. 2. 4. Various Types of Audiovisual Translation as perceived by the audience 16
2. 4. 2. 5. Globalisation of Audiovisual Translation 17
2. 4. 2. 6. The Job of Audiovisual Translator 18
2. 4. 2. 7. Fake Subtitles 18
3. Differences between Literary and Audiovisual Translations 19
3. 1. Subtitling 20
3. 1. 1. The Process of Subtitling 20
Position on the Screen 21
Number of Lines 21
Text Positioning 21
Number of Characters per Line 22
Typeface and Distribution 22
3. 1. 2. Duration of a Subtitle 22
3. 1. 3. Synchronisation 23
3. 1. 4. Punctuation 24
3. 1. 5. Other Conventions 25
3. 1. 6. Translation and adaptation of the subtitles 26
3. 1. 6. 1. Omission 27
3. 1. 6. 2. Use of simple vocabulary 27
3. 1. 6. 3. Simple syntax 27
3. 1. 7. Subtitles Editing 28
3. 1. 7. 1. Subtitling of written texts 29
3. 1. 8. ESIST 29
3. 2. Revoicing 30
3. 2. 1. Voice-over, narration and free commentary 30
3. 2. 2. Dubbing 30
3. 2. 2. 1. Dubbing Translation 31
3. 2. 2. 2. Dubbing Adaptation 31
3. 2. 2. 3. Synchronism 31
3. 3. Conclusion on Subtitling and Dubbing 33
4. Harry Potter 34
4. 1. Potential Translation Problems and their Czech Solutions 34
4. 1. 1. British Culture 34
4. 1. 2. Names, Spells and Neologisms 37
4. 1. 3. Language of the Characters 39
4. 2. Differences between the Book and the Film 39
4. 3. Czech Audiovisual Translations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 41
4. 3. 1. Official DVD Dubbing 41
4. 3. 2. Official DVD Subtitles 42
4. 3. 3. Fake Subtitles 44
4. 3. 3. 1. Fake Subtitles 1 44
4. 3. 3. 2. Fake Subtitles 2 49
4. 4. Differences between Audiovisual and Literary Translations 51
4. 4. 1. British Culture 51
4. 4. 2. Names, spells and neologisms 51
4. 4. 2. 1. Names 51
4. 4. 2. 2. Spells 53
4. 4. 3. Language of the characters 54
4. 4. 4. Addressing Students 54
4. 4. 5. Dialogues 55
5. Conclusion 56
Works Cited 58
Primary Sources 58
Secondary Sources 58
Audiovisual translation (and subtitling in particular) is a branch of translation studies, which has been neglected by translatology scholars until very recently. As a result of this marginalization, no subtitler actually knew how exactly the job should be done. This situation has been improving in recent years owing particularly to the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation. Academic research has started in this field and several works concerning audiovisual translation have been published. The aim of this work is to contribute to the exploration of this interesting field of study.
Its first part deals with audiovisual translation as such since this kind of translation is characterized by certain particularities. In case of subtitling it is especially the lack of space and time. The translation is influenced by confined space available for the subtitle text, the time available for and between subtitle exposures, the timing of subtitle insertion and removal and last but not least the display and format of the subtitles. Besides, the subtitler has to take into account the average reading speed of the viewers.
As for the dubbing, its main aim is to seem natural and authentic. The performed translation must match the lip movements of the speaker on the screen as closely as possible, especially when the actor is shown in a close-up. There are usually more people cooperating, one of them making a raw translation and another one rewriting it in order to match it with the lip movements of the person seen on the screen.
All these factors influence the translation and make it very different from a literary translation.
The second part of the thesis deals with a particular film – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. First of all, the translation of the book is examined with emphasis being laid on potential translation problems and their solutions in the Czech translation. In order to be able to treat the translation differences between a film and a book on which it is based, it is also necessary to know the differences between the book and the film themselves. Thus, various kinds of changes (particularly elision which is almost mandatory in all films based on novels) are treated in a separate chapter.
There are two basic aims of the thesis. The first one is to find out what the difference is between the subtitled versions and the dubbed version as far as content and means of expression are concerned and to find out whether it corresponds to the theoretical principles mentioned in the first part of the work.
The second aim is to find out whether the solution to the potential translation problems is the same in the book and in the film and whether the audiovisual translations are inspired by their literary counterpart in cases when the film script and book dialogues are the same.
Harry P...
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