ISSUES IN AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION

Abstract

Audiovisual translation is one of several overlapping umbrella terms that include ‘media translation’, ‘multimedia translation’, ‘multimodal translation’ and ‘screen translation’. These different terms all set out to cover the interlingual transfer of verbal language when it is transmitted and accessed both visually and acoustically, usually, but not necessarily, through some kind of electronic device. Theatrical plays and opera, for example, are clearly audiovisual yet, until recently, audiences required no technological devices to access their translations; actors and singers simply acted and sang the translated versions. Nowadays, however, opera is frequently performed in the original language with surtitles in the target language projected on to the stage. Furthermore, electronic librettos placed on the back of each seat containing translations are now becoming widely available. However, to date most research in audiovisual translation has been dedicated to the field of screen translation, which, while being both audiovisual and multimedial in nature, is specifically understood to refer to the translation of films and other products for cinema, TV, video and DVD.