Translation as Censorship: Analysing the Role of Censorship and Manipulation in the Audiovisual Translation of Gender and Sexuality-Related Texts

• Renna, Rocca Floriana ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Catania

     University of Catania

     Catania, Italia

     
• Localización: Concepts, Discourses, and Translations / Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (ed. lit.), Marcin Trojszczak (ed. lit.), 2022, ISBN 9783030960988, págs. 325-339
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The research aims to analyse the relationship between translation and censorship within the framework of audiovisual products. Terms such as “censorship” and “manipulation” are often considered as interchangeable, almost overlapping. The latter may not have an entirely negative connotation since it is the result of technical considerations, even though it can also be linked to influence and control unfairly exerted. The first concept, “censorship”, goes beyond since it suppresses information, but also decides how to deal with the values and morals of the culture of the source text. However, we also have linguistic constraints and general public expectations on style form and content that require manipulation of the target text. Nowadays, we indeed find it easier to detect manipulation in the translation and adaptation done for television and cinema. Italy is well known for its propensity to use dubbing instead of subtitling and for its long tradition of dubbing specialists. However, there is no lack of examples of bad translations and adaptations. In particular, the purpose of this research is to focus on the strategies and modality through which Italian translators and adaptors translate concepts and expressions considered as taboo by their culture. Undoubtedly, as mentioned, manipulation in translation can also happen due to linguistic issues and difficulties in the transfer from English to the Italian language. An example is gayspeak, the fictitious language spoken by gay men and women in the audiovisual world, which in Italy often undergoes forms of censorship—along with any reference to sexuality in general—such as edulcoration, to render a concept more suitable for a particular audience. It must be said that Italy approached to the LGBTQ+ world only recently, failing to construct an equivalent gayspeak vocabulary, but, often, what causes audiovisual products to be censored is the will from television broadcasters to “protect” the younger audiences from “potentially harmful” contents. By way of example, TV series dialogues containing gayspeak language will be examined to identify the strategies used by Italian adaptors in translating these specific cultural references and in order to see if any improvement can be detected in the adaptation of references to homosexuality and sexuality in general over the years.