False equality in election advertisements

Abstract

Abstract Studies have covered a variety of aspects related to the translation of political texts and propaganda. However, little has been written about the role that heterolingualism and translation can play in the original versions of these very texts. This article investigates a case in which multilingualism in propaganda was employed to reflect and comment on multilingualism and diversity in the political reality. It analyzes two highly controversial televised election advertisements from the Israeli 2013 campaign and their use of both Hebrew and Arabic in speech and in interlingual and intralingual subtitles. The analysis shows that code-switching and subtitles can play a role in conveying the political message and in masking it at the same time. It also suggests that the political use of heterolingualism and translation in the propaganda itself should be more profoundly explored.