Italian Dubbing Research Articles

Dubbing murder: censorship and manipulation in the Italian dubbing of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope

ABSTRACT In the Italian context, censorial interventions and film manipulation through the practice of dubbing are not restricted to the Fascist era. In the decades that followed, official organisations continued to oversee film distribution of both domestic and international films, frequently withholding permission for public screenings when films did not conform to the conservative ideas espoused by those in power. In the 1950s, cinema was still regarded as a dangerous medium capable of influencing audiences and causing moral degradation. As a result, dubbing was still actively employed to change the linguistic content of films and make them more consistent with the Christian Democratic Party’s traditional values. This article examines an extreme case of film manipulation achieved through dubbing: Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope. The 1956 dubbed version of the movie can be considered at all effects an adaptation of the original: the suppression of the political and ideological components of the film, deemed immoral and perverse, significantly altered the plot and reduced the subversive nuances of all characters. Through an examination of archival documents preserved at the Ministry of Culture in Rome, I will show how censorship interfered to invisibly rewrite Rope, transforming it into a more reassuring and classic crime story.

An Analysis of the Italian Dubbing of Edgar Allan Poe’s Poems in “The Fall of the House of Usher”

This paper will analyse the Italian dubbing of Edgar Allan Poe Poems in the gothic horror drama “The Fall of the House of Usher” (2023) by Mike Flanagan. Specifically, the poems that will be analysed are “Annabel Lee” and “The City in the Sea”. The analysis will be pursued following a qualitative approach. Poems will be examined individually, and the original English version will be compared to the Italian dubbing through a detailed discourse analysis. Particular attention was given to the level of literary rendering in the Italian version, lip movement visibility and the overall changes detected within the two versions of the poems. The two poems have been translated largely literally in the Italian version. Examining the results, it can be confirmed that the lip movement had a minor influence on the translation choices. The Italian dubbed version maintains the original meaning of the poem coherently with the scenes and contexts in which these are recited in the miniseries.

Creativity in pivot audiovisual translation. Parasite subtitled and dubbed in Italian

ABSTRACT Creativity in pivot AVT is a burning issue, since the pivot text can be seen as imposing pre-existing patterns, which may limit the translator’s decision-making process and influence their creative output. To verify this, we examined the Italian subtitled and dubbed versions of the film Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019), a well-known example of Korean audiovisual content transferred interlinguistically using English as a pivot language. The preliminary textual analysis of the data showed that both the Italian versions were also created using the pivot translation by Darcy Paquet. Being unable to retrieve the name of the Italian subtitler, we examined the Italian subtitles and found they are very close to the English pivot, often replicating some creative and controversial choices. For the Italian dubbing, we managed to interview the Italian dialogue writer (and dubbing director) and the translator. Their feedback on the translation process and the comparative analysis of the Korean source text, English subtitles and Italian dubbing demonstrated that the Italian dubbing team relied not only on the English subtitles but also on subtitles in other languages and the Korean script to create a text that often departs from the English pivot, and it is closer to the original.

Analysing multilingualism in drama and comedy: the Italian dubbing of Jane the Virgin and Peaky Blinders

Analysing multilingualism in drama and comedy: the Italian dubbing of Jane the Virgin and Peaky Blinders

The Rendering of Multilingual Occurrences in Netflix’s Italian Dub Streams: Evolving Trends and Norms on Streaming Platforms

Given the vast scholarly attention paid to multilingualism on traditional media over the years, it seems timely to focus on streaming platforms. This paper sets out to identify potential norms for the rendering of multilingual occurrences in the localised content of Netflix series. It also seeks to explore whether streaming translation practices related to multilingualism differ from the consolidated norms and practices for TV and cinema content. The chosen data sample consists of the Italian dub streams of five TV Netflix-produced shows featuring multilingualism as a main characteristic. The strategies and techniques adopted in each series are singled out, quantified, and labelled according to a combination of taxonomies. These include dubbing, revoicing, subtitling, part-subtitling, diegetic interpreting, unchanged speech transfer, and no translation. A wider analysis is also carried out across all the data sample to draw patterns on a macro level. The findings reveal a strong tendency to mark and preserve multilingualism, in line with Netflix’s own policies and dubbing specifications. Transfer unchanged combined with subtitles emerges as the most recurrent strategy, while the dub-over strategy accounts for 13% of the multilingual occurrences in the data sample. Extensive neutralisation is therefore not encountered. That said, a certain degree of overlap between multilingual translation norms on Netflix and conventional Italian dubbing practices (which tend to neutralise) can still be observed.

When we rise: comparing the official Italian dubbing and the fansubs of a LGBT docu-series

ABSTRACT The manipulation and censorship of sensitive materials in audiovisual translation has attracted the interest of scholars in recent years. Italian dubbing typically tends to tone down or eliminate strong language and references to sensitive themes. However, the higher degree of foreignization displayed in fansubbing addresses a pressing issue in dubbing countries, where the accessibility of original audiovisual texts has prompted viewers to realize that dubbed products lose a relevant percentage of their initial flavor. The aim of this paper is to compare the Italian dubbing and the fansubbing of When We Rise, a docu-series about LGBT rights that aired in 2017 on ABC. The Italian dubbed and fansubbed dialogues are analysed in order to detect instances of actual censorship and cases of manipulation in the translation of references to sexual orientation or roles. This study will also focus on the rendition of trivialisms, that is swear words and insults, and words and phrases related to the LGBTQIA sphere. The analysis will also demonstrate whether the lexical imbalance between English and Italian plays a role in the translation of sexual orientation terms and of expressions of dysphemism for LGBT+.

Humour and other catastrophes: dealing with the translation of mixed-genre TV Series

Starting from a trend observed in the Italian dubbing of US series “Six Feet Under” (Bucaria 2005; Bucaria forthcoming) involving the deletion or toning down of most instances of potentially disturbing elements, this paper will take into consideration examples from three US TV series (“House MD,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Six Feet Under”) dubbed into Italian and presenting a mixture of drama and comedy, in an attempt to analyze the degree of manipulation or adaptation that they underwent in terms of the linguistic representation of clashing genres. With particular reference to the rendering of humorous comments produced in unexpected contexts, the analysis shows considerable manipulation in the translated versions and a consequent decrease in the humorous content of the target texts.

Professional and amateur AVT. The Italian dubbing, subtitling and fansubbing of The Handmaid’s Tale

ABSTRACT Nowadays, digitalisation has an enormous impact on the way multimedia content is created and conveyed. It affects the intra-, interlingual and intercultural transfer of audiovisual products, which can be enjoyed dubbed, subtitled, voiced over etc. Most importantly, technology has facilitated the spread of phenomena such as fansubbing and fandubbing across the world. Hence, this study seeks to assess the impact of the current fast-changing mediascape on traditional and new AVT modes. To this end, we analyse the first two seasons of the North American TV series The Handmaid’s Tale (Bruce Miller, 2017-) in their Italian dubbed, subtitled and (ItaSA) funsubbed versions. A preliminary investigation of the dubbed and subtitled versions shows that the latter is an intralingual (condensed) version of the former (a.k.a. dubtitles), which is an unusual practice in Italy. Interviews with the dubbing company and the subtitlers attempted to explain the rationale behind this. Furthermore, the textual examination of the different treatment of religious references, text-internal references, and coarse language in the dubbed/subtitled and the fansubbed versions of this series shows the fluidity of professional and amateur AVT, which appear to intersect within today’s ever-changing mediascape.

“We Work Hard, We Play Hard!”—Fictional Gayspeak in the Italian Dubbing of “The Simpsons”: A Queer Audiovisual Translation Study

Despite being an animated sitcom, The Simpsons is a satire of contemporary American society and culture. This article intends to apply a queer perspective to Audiovisual Translation Studies, in line with what Flotow (2019) defined the third approach to gender-focused audiovisual translation, that is, the investigation of gay and queer source texts and their treatment in the target text. This study deals with the process of sexualisation of fictional gay men through fictional gayspeak. The analysis focuses on excerpts where the Italian dubbing departs from the original, and the strategies that have been used to reproduce gayspeak into Italian. The investigation rests on the idea that translation is a gender-constructing activity implying the queering of the target text, which is a process that varies from language to language.

The translation of legal references in the Italian dubbing of a US TV series. A corpus-based analysis

Legal drama series contribute to the popularisation of legal discourse and legal concepts: however, as they are entertainment products, they also simplify complex constructs for the sake of plot comprehension. When such products are translated for foreign audiences, a further layer of complexity is added onto them. Legal references in audiovisual products are notoriously challenging to translate, especially when the legal traditions of the source and target cultures are different. This paper investigates the translation strategies employed in the Italian dubbing of The Good Wife , a very popular legal drama from the US, to convey the legal references in the dialogues to Italian viewers. The data used in the analysis come from the DubTalk corpus, compiled at Universita degli Studi Internazionali di Roma-UNINT. A theoretical framework was developed to classify the legal references in the original English dialogues and the related translation strategies in the Italian dubbed version; moreover, interviews were conducted with four professionals involved in the Italian dubbing of the series, with the aim of achieving a better comprehension of the process. The analysis shows that the most frequent translation strategies in our corpus are the use of functional equivalents, periphrases and calques; thus, while the key principle driving the Italian dubbed version may be said to be domestication, frequent legal terms and fixed formulae were translated via calques and standardised translations which viewers have come to expect in translated legal dramas. This balanced mixture of domesticating and foreignising strategies facilitates comprehension whilst at the same time reminding the audience of the foreign origin of the series, to ensure maximum enjoyment.

The Impact of Italian Dubbing on Viewers’ Immersive Experience: An Audience Reception Study

This paper analyses the impact of Italian dubbing on the immersive psychological experience of the American TV series Game of Thrones, using data from post-hoc self-report questionnaires. The show is filled with historical and cultural references to medieval England and the characters are portrayed linguistically through different accents, regional dialects and registers. The research takes the form of an audience reception study. Two audience samples (Italian and English native speakers) watched an excerpt from the ninth episode of season two. English viewers watched the video in the original version, while the Italian sample watched it in the dubbed version. Participants then completed a 40-item questionnaire to self-report their level of immersion, using post-hoc Likert scales to evaluate their presence, perceived realism, character identification, enjoyment and transportation to the narrative world. The results showed significant differences between the immersion levels experienced by the two samples. The English audience reported higher scores on each immersion scale, especially with regard to perceived realism, character identification and transportation, while presence seemed to be the least affected by language transfer.

(Dis)aligning across different linguacultures: Pragmatic questions from original to dubbed film dialogue

Abstract In original and dubbed film dialogue, direct questions are a means to depict interpersonal relationships on screen. In particular, pragmatic questions (i.e. non-questioning, rhetorical interrogatives) are frequently employed to mark alignment among interactants, in the form of affiliative and disaffiliative interrogatives, respectively expressing positive and negative stance. Based on the exploration of the Pavia Corpus of Film Dialogue, the current study aims at investigating the ways in which affiliative and disaffiliative questions are constructed in original English filmic speech and in Italian dubbing. The two dialogue types show rather high similarity in the distribution of pragmatic questions – with a notable prevalence of disaffiliative interrogatives carrying conflict-initiating role. However, different strategies are privileged in the two languages for the linguistic construction of stance. The English source text does not rely on a single and specific pattern to signal affiliation, while it marks disaffiliation through inserts, emotionally-loaded chunks and non-canonical word order in the interrogative. Conversely, dubbed Italian frequently draws on weak connectors to express disalignment and prefers different types of syntactically marked structures in the construction of affiliation. Findings thus suggest a certain degree of autonomy for dubbed dialogue in the selection of specific linguistic markers to transfer and re-portray interpersonal relationships in the target linguaculture.

Multilingual humour in audiovisual translation. Modern Family dubbed in Italian

Audiovisual productions are increasingly featuring multi-ethnic communities which also reflect today’s globalised world. Characters in both films and TV series are often depicted as having a bilingual background and heavily relying on code-switching to express their bicultural identity (Monti 2016: 69). As such, this phenomenon poses important challenges for its translation, especially when dubbing is involved. Using this audiovisual translation (AVT) mode involves a necessary technical manipulation(Díaz-Cintas 2012: 284-285). As for Italian dubbing, multilingualism has often undergone a process of neutralization (Pavesi 2005: 56) or local standardization (Ulrych 2000: 410), although recent dubbed films have proved to be geared towards a more faithful rendering of this important feature of the source text (Monti 2016: 90).It should be borne in mind that contextual factors, such as genres, may play a fundamental role in deciding whether to retain or neutralise multilingualism in AVT, especially when it is used for humorous purposes. In those cases, the perlocutionary function of the ST should be considered (Hickey 1998; cf. also Zabalbeascoa 2012: 322). Comedy can make use of multilingualism to entertain and the American mockumentary (or docucomedy) Modern Family(Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, 2009-2019), is a striking example in this sense. It follows the lives of Jay Pritchett and his family in suburban Los Angeles. Linguistically speaking, the most interesting character is Jay’s second wife Gloria Delgado, a young and beautiful Colombian woman who often code-switches or code-mixes English and Spanish (with a marked Colombian accent), thus creating moments of pure comedy. Hence, this study investigates how Gloria’s humorous and multilingual persona has been transferred into Italian. The analysis confirms the current tendency of Italian dubbing to render otherness in the TT (Monti 2016: 89). This may be justified by the genre and scope of the programme, that allow for a more innovative transfer of vernacular matching via what I propose to call functional manipulation.

Transferring multilingual humour intralingually: the case of “Big Night”

Multilingual films usually tackle significant social and political issues. Sometimes, these films adopt linguistic diversity to create confusion and to trigger humour, accomplishing a comic effect. Normally, films about migration and diaspora are multilingual, as they want to recreate the linguistic diversity that exists in reality. There are many cases though in which the translator/adapter faces the struggle of translating into his/her own language. In this paper, we will analyse the Italian dubbing of Big Night, to see how the dialogues have been conveyed and especially how verbally expressed humour and stereotypes from the Italian language and culture are transferred intralingually and to what effect.

The Cockney persona: the London accent in characterisation and translation

ABSTRACTThis contribution focuses on the London accent, in its traditional Cockney realisation and in its more recent developments. The function of this accent in the original texts and its translation into Italian dubbing are both considered. After a description of the iconic features of the London variety, significant examples are presented, which showcase this accent in contrast with other accents and sociolects, especially the received pronunciation, according to a typical narrative topos. Rather than concentrating on the frequent realistic portrayals authored by socially oriented writers and directors, the examples chosen here to illustrate some typical telecinematic renditions of this popular variety are more stereotypical realisations of the London accent, whose aim is to portray an emblematic character with a distinctive idiolect. In the last section, dialogue excerpts will be analysed through the lens of two functions in particular, those defined by Kozloff (2000) as ‘opportunities for star turns’ and ‘exploitation of the resources of language’, two of the least quoted, but most interesting categories of her seminal taxonomy. Emphasis on these functions will arguably give the opportunity to approach the much-discussed topic of dialect translation from a fresher perspective.

(Mis)representations of Motherf** in Italian Film Dubbing

There are swearwords which are considered very offensive and are almost unutterable in many situations and in different languages. One of such words is “motherfucker”, which, nonetheless, is fairly used in American films. Being forbidden in Italian dubbing, the literature claims that audiovisual translators tend to replace it by resorting to alternatives, such as “son of a bitch” and “bastard”. What this paper will explore, is whether such replacement swearwords are used in Italian dubbed films and to what extent. To this aim, a corpus of 24 American films dated from 1977 to 2015 will be implemented and the occurrence rates of the back translations will be analysed. This analysis will firstly highlight that the literature's findings can be confirmed only partly, as the epithet “son of a bitch” is very recurrent (as well as omissions), while the insult “bastard” is almost neglected. Discrepancies in the film ratings will then emerge, as the films composing the corpus are rated R in The United States; whereas they are rated either a sort of NC-13 or G in Italy. Therefore, a further analysis will be mandatory in order to explore divergences in translations, if any, in view of the different film ratings. This analysis will yet confirm the high recurrence to “son of a bitch”; however, it will also highlight that dubbed films rated G are censored pervasively; whereas NC-13 films resort to new translation patterns, albeit on reduced terms.

Racial slurs in Italian film dubbing

Abstract This paper explores how racial slurs are dealt with in Anglo-American films and rendered in films dubbed in Italian. It focuses on the racist epithets ‘nigger’, ‘gook’ and ‘zipper head’ with a view to unveiling the linguistic choices made by Italian audiovisual translators. Furthermore, it supports the claim that taboo topics vary from culture to culture and sheds some light on self-censorship, which has allegedly shifted from sexual and religious topics to ethnic slurs (Allan and Burridge 2006; Hughes 2006). In some cases the analysis reveals a wide spectrum of translation choices accompanied by subtle linguistic manipulations. In other cases translation choices tend to be fixed owing to the limited range of corresponding slurs in Italian. Also, the paper discusses self-censorship in contemporary Anglo-American films. In this regard, it is observed that ‘the n-word’ has characterized the majority of Anglo-American films since 2000 and has hallmarked a shift in self-censorship. The final question that this paper addresses is whether Italian culture is ready or not for this change.

WTF! Taboo Language in TV Series: An Analysis of Professional and Amateur Translation

This paper focuses on the topic of censorship associated with the use of strong language and swear words in the translation of contemporary American TV series. In AVT, more specifically in Italian dubbing, the practice of censorship, in the form of suppression or toning down of what might be perceived as offensive, disturbing, too explicit or inconvenient, still remains a problematic issue. By focusing on two recent successful TV series - Girls and Orange is the New Black – which are characterized by the use of strong language (swear words, politically incorrect references) and the presence of taboo subjects (homosexuality, sex, drugs, violence) – this study will consider the different translation choices applied in dubbing and fansubbing. Previous academic studies have underlined the fact that professional translators tend to remove, more or less consciously, the disturbing elements from the source text, while fansubbers try to adhere as much as possible to the original text, not only in terms of linguistic contents but also in terms of register and style. The results of this analysis seem on the one hand to confirm that there is still not a systematic set of rules that govern the translation of strong language in dubbing, and on the other to indicate that the gap between professional and amateur translation is perhaps becoming less pronounced.

Aspectos ideológicos en la traducción para el doblaje de Física o Química

The general aim of this paper is to present the initial results of a descriptive study of the Italian dubbing of the Spanish television series Fisica o Quimica [Physics or Chemistry]. Fisica o Quimica is set in a secondary school in Madrid. Its main characters are teenagers and teachers, and its storyline revolves around the relationships between them. The series features dialogues containing many colloquial and rude expressions typical of the language used by youngsters, as well as scenes portraying youngsters’ interest in religion, sex, drugs, and social groups. The paper shows the impact of ideological orientations on the translated version, and how this has led to distortions, altered meanings or even the complete removal of elements deemed taboo.

"Mind you, that's just, like, a guestimation": A diachronic analysis of morphological creativity in American teen talk and dubbing

The language of adolescents has always been of particular interest to linguists mostly for being extremely creative. Adolescence is, in fact, a transition stage that coincides with the entrance into secondary school, where teenagers strive to construct their own identity, mainly through linguistic innovation (Eckert 1989, 1997, 2004). In this sense, language becomes a strong identity marker (Edwards 2009) whose role becomes crucial in the portrayal of adolescent characters in films. The present paper aims at investigating the language of American adolescents diachronically in three famous movies of different decades from the 1980s to 2000s, namely Sixteen Candles (1984, Hughes), Clueless (1995, Heckerling) and Juno (2007, Reitman), which revolve around teenagers’ life at high school. The first step in the analysis consists in the identification of some characterising features of teen talk, especially focusing on word formation. Then, the analysis will be carried out contrastively and cross-culturally from a translational perspective, since these phenomena will be also investigated in Italian dubbing. More specifically, it will be ascertained whether or not these features are transposed into Italian, if so, pinpointing the most common strategies employed as well as the strategies used for compensation when, on the contrary, the complexity and difficulty in rendering certain linguistic and cultural specific phenomena hamper to find efficient translating solutions in the target text. Finally, problems deriving from this type of audiovisual translation, like lip synch, will also be taken into account and it will also be checked if the dubbed version succeeds in depicting the characters in the same way as in the original text.