Representing Translation: The Representation of Translation and Translators in Contemporary Media

245 Pages·2019·3.856 MB·English

by  Dr Dror Abend-David (editor)

Representing Translation

Representing Translation
The Representation of Translation and
Translators in Contemporary Media
Edited by
Dror Abend-David
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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First published in the United States of America 2019
Paperback edition first published 2020
Copyright © Dror Abend-David and Contributors, 2019
Cover image: Film: The Railway Man, 2014
Collection Christophel / Arena PAL
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Abend-David, Dror, 1966-editor
Title: Representing translation: the representation of translation and
translators in contemporary media / edited by Dror Abend-David.
Description: New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019003753 (print) | LCCN 2019980260 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781501333873 (hardback: alk.paper) | ISBN 9781501333880 (epub) |
ISBN 9781501333897 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Translating and interpreting in mass media. |
Translators in mass media.
Classification: LCC P96.T83 R47 2019 (print) | LCC P96.T83 (ebook) |
DDC 418/.02—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003753
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019980260
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-3387-3
PB: 978-1-5013-6814-1
ePDF: 978-1-5013-3389-7
eBook: 978-1-5013-3388-0
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Contents
Editor’s Note Dror Abend-David vii
1 Imagining Translation and Translators:
Editor’s Introductory Note 1
The Evolution of the “Universal Translator”: Technical Device and
Human Factor in Doctor Who and Star Trek from the 1960s to
the Present Erga Heller 2
Glossary 18
2 The Translator as Protagonist:
Editor’s Introductory Note 21
In Search of a Chinese Hamlet: Translation, Interpretation, and
Personalities in Postwar Film-Cultural Exchange Ying Xiao 22
Glossary 39
3 Translators as Social (Double) Agents:
Editor’s Introductory Note 45
Mediating Violence: Three Film Portrayals of Interpreters’ Dilemmas
as Participants in Conflict Kayoko Takeda 46
Glossary 64
4 Translation and Translators in New Media:
Editor’s Introductory Note 69
Reactions to Audiovisual Adaptation on Social Media: The Case of
How To Get Away With Murder Chiara Bucaria 70
Glossary 93
vi Contents
5 Translation and/as Global Communication:
Editor’s Introductory Note 97
Cross-Languaging Romance on Screen Delia Chiaro 98
Glossary 118
6 “They have eyes, but they [could see better]”:
Editor’s Introductory Note 121
Audio Description for All? Enhancing the Experience of Sighted
Viewers through Visual Media Access Services Iwona Mazur 122
Glossary 144
7 Translating Translation:
Editor’s Introductory Note 151
Translating Multilingual Films in a South African Context
Zoë Pettit 152
Glossary 176
8 Translation and Localization in Advertisement:
Editor’s Introductory Note 179
Localization Strategies in English–Chinese Advertisement
Translation Ying Cui and Yanli Zhao 180
Glossary 196
9 The “Non-Translation”:
Editor’s Introductory Note 199
Yiddish, Media and the Dramatic Function of Translation—or
What Does It Take to Read Joel and Ethan Coen’s film, A Serious
Man? Dror Abend-David 200
Glossary 215
Contributors 221
Index 225
Editor’s Note
Dror Abend-David
University of Florida
As Michael Cronin writes (2003: 68), translators in the twenty- first century have
become important social and political agents. This fact has certainly been
reflected in contemporary media. Who can forget the scene from Roberto
Benigni’s 1997 film, La vita è bella [Life is Beautiful], in which the hero volunteers
to serve as an interpreter (despite the fact that he does not speak German) in
order to spare his son from hearing the instructions of a Nazi officer? Those who
do not speak Italian see this scene in (an additional) translation, rendering a
translation- within-translation while representing the interpreter as an involved
character (and, in this case, the protagonist). In this and other scenes like it,
translation and translators become a part of the story and an inseparable part of
a contemporary life that is increasingly multilingual, multiethnic, multinational,
and socially diverse.
Consequently, media at the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century presents a
new trend in terms of the quantity, quality, and variety of foreign dialog.
Moreover, such representation is often self-a ware, ironic, and acutely conscious
of the dramatic function of translation: not of transmitting content, but of
infusing drama with social, political, and historical meaning.1 Films such as
Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) and Pollack’s The Interpreter (2005) reflect a
number of theoretical issues that are discussed by translation scholars, presenting
some thoughtful doubts and observations about the limits and potentials of
translation (and interpretation). In television drama, translation and secondary
languages can be ironic as well. One example might include the use in the drama,
Brothers & Sisters (2006–2011), of Chinese (2008)2 and of French (2009):3
Chinese and French remain untranslated, highlighting the fact that Sarah
(Rachel Griffiths) is ignorant of these languages, while the men that she is
involved with speak them fluently. In House M.D. (2004–2012), the main
character, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), prefers the translation of an online
Dutch stripper (2010)4 to the services of a professional translator, an act that can
be construed as a comment on the nature of translation as a profession . . . This
viii Editor’s Note
trend does not skip the realm of online and offline commercials,5 sometimes
with surprising twists in plot. While it might not seem surprising that Japanese
is used in a car commercial on prime-t ime television in the United States, it
becomes quite a surprise when this is done to sell the Chrysler 200 (2014), an
American car that is claimed to be (almost?) as good as a Japanese car. And
translation is certainly made to steal the show in commercials such as those of
Ukfoods (2008), in which actor Dennis Banks advertises imported food products
that are brought from Britain to the United States. Although the commercial
does not contain any languages other than English, translation is featured front-
and-center as Banks talks of the imported products of Ukfoods in a local East
London British slang, and his words are translated by subtitles into Standard
English.
This phenomenon is a result of the fact that, even in the United States, foreign
language, translation, and translators take an increasingly important role in
everyday life. This is certainly reflected in the media: political drama, newscasts,
thrillers, and comedies feature characters of translators and interpreters who
often play an important role in the narrative. And even when translations and
translators are not featured, contemporary media increasingly represent a
multilingual, multicultural, and multinational reality. In the recent television
series, Mozart in the Jungle (2014–2018), a New York-b ased opera company
serves as a natural environment for the languages, identities, cultural references,
foods, and traditions of a cosmopolitan city (often extended to exotic locations
around the world). Beneath the surface, of course, such representation has an
important political significance, oscillating between a diverse reality and the
homogeneous political discourse that characterizes contemporary American
politics.
Academically, the current collection, Representing Translation: The
Representation of Translation and Translators in Contemporary Media, is a
continuation of a previous collection: Media and Translation: An Interdisciplinary
Approach (Bloomsbury, 2014; 2016). Media and Translation did not only
contribute to the emerging field of Media and Translation, but was able to
contextualize this field, highlighting the extent to which translation plays an
increasingly significant social, political, commercial, and ethical role in the
production of contemporary media. The current collection takes the next
theoretical step to explore the manner in which translation has been moving from
the background of media production, and made to serve as a captivating theme in
film, television, commercials, online content, and other New Media. It addresses
Editor’s Note ix
both the increasingly significant role that translation plays in a multilingual and
global society—and the reflection of this role in contemporary media. Some
themes that this collection addresses are: the role of translators and translation in
drama (both in film and television); translators as protagonists; translators as
agents, double agents, and negotiators; translation and translators in New Media;
translation and global communication; the presentation of visual texts through
alternative techniques (as in the cases of captioning and audio- description);
translation within multilingual films; and translation in advertisements.
The purpose of the collection, among others, is to expand the view of
translation beyond its utilitarian function, and present it as both performative
and communicative. As Michael Raine (2014, 2016: 151) writes in Media and
Translation: audiovisual translation is “a glaze that penetrates the surface of the
film, making it transportable even [as it] change[s] it completely.” In this
collection, however, translation is not only seen as playing a significant role in
the rendering of the text—but is, in fact, becoming a part of the story and an
inseparable part of a contemporary life that is increasingly multilingual,
multiethnic, multinational, and socially diverse.
It is of course in the nature of a collection of scholarly essays about translation
that it presents a fascinating array of scholars from various nations who address
different cultures and political realities, whether in Japan, China, South Africa,
Poland, Italy, or the United States. Indeed, several months ago I knew very little
about the differences between the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War
between 1937 and 1945. Nor was I aware of the important difference between
lasagna and lasagne. I did not know that the acronym, VIP, can stand for “Visually
Impaired Person”; and I was not aware that the TARDIS, the translation device
that is featured in the series, Doctor Who (1963–1989), is not a genderless
machine, but rather a feminine and super intelligent bio- spaceship. I hope that
the reader will enjoy as I have the diverse and enriching cultural landscape that
the authors in this collection provide.
The collection also provides a wide interdisciplinary array, as it features
scholars in Film Studies, New Media, Linguistics, Cultural Studies, and of course
Translation Studies and Audiovisual Translation. Most of our participants wear
more than a single disciplinary hat, and provide an erudite outlook that forces
the reader out of a disciplinary, univocal, and entrenched academic agenda.
Perhaps what is common to all the chapters in this collection is the realization
that translation is never only about the transmission of a finite text, and that it
always involves a complex and volatile cultural exchange.