New Trends in T ranslation Studies New Trends in T ranslation Studies Vol. 23 In Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, African American character Mookie throws a M rubbish bin through the window of the pizzeria he works for, which is owned by é v an Italian American family. Translators often find themselves in a position of moral e l ambiguity similar to that of Mookie: at the nexus between cultures, translators • Subtitling have to make clear statements through their choices, with sometimes dramatic S consequences. u b African American English t i t Drawing on the fields of translation studies, sociolinguistics and film studies, this l i n book analyses the French subtitling of African American English in a corpus of g into French films from the United States. After describing African American English and A f r analysing how this variety is often portrayed in films, the book explores the i c implications of resorting to the use of non-standard forms in the French subtitles a n to portray linguistic variation, paying special attention to the consequences of A m juxtaposing two linguistic varieties on screen. This book goes beyond the mere e Can We Do the Right Thing? case study and examines the relevance of the concepts of domestication and r i c foreignization in the context of subtitling. a n E n g Pierre-Alexis Mével is Assistant Professor in Translation Studies at the University l i s of Nottingham and the founder and director of the MA in Translation Studies. h Pierre-Alexis Mével i He teaches translation theory and audiovisual translation at both undergraduate n t o and postgraduate levels. He holds a PhD in French and Francophone Studies F from the University of Nottingham and has previously worked as a freelance r e translator. His research focuses on the representations of non-standard varieties n c in films. h ISBN 978-3-0343-1897-6 Peter Lang www.peterlang.com New Trends in T ranslation Studies New Trends in T ranslation Studies Vol. 23 In Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, African American character Mookie throws a M rubbish bin through the window of the pizzeria he works for, which is owned by é v an Italian American family. Translators often find themselves in a position of moral e l ambiguity similar to that of Mookie: at the nexus between cultures, translators • Subtitling have to make clear statements through their choices, with sometimes dramatic S consequences. u b African American English t i t Drawing on the fields of translation studies, sociolinguistics and film studies, this l i n book analyses the French subtitling of African American English in a corpus of g into French films from the United States. After describing African American English and A f r analysing how this variety is often portrayed in films, the book explores the i c implications of resorting to the use of non-standard forms in the French subtitles a n to portray linguistic variation, paying special attention to the consequences of A m juxtaposing two linguistic varieties on screen. This book goes beyond the mere e Can We Do the Right Thing? case study and examines the relevance of the concepts of domestication and r i c foreignization in the context of subtitling. a n E n g Pierre-Alexis Mével is Assistant Professor in Translation Studies at the University l i s of Nottingham and the founder and director of the MA in Translation Studies. h Pierre-Alexis Mével i He teaches translation theory and audiovisual translation at both undergraduate n t o and postgraduate levels. He holds a PhD in French and Francophone Studies F from the University of Nottingham and has previously worked as a freelance r e translator. His research focuses on the representations of non-standard varieties n c in films. h Peter Lang www.peterlang.com Subtitling African American English into French New Trends in Translation Studies Volume 23 Series Editor: Professor Jorge Díaz Cintas Advisory Board: Professor Susan Bassnett Dr Lynne Bowker Professor Frederic Chaume Professor Aline Remael PETER LANG Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien Subtitling African American English into French Can We Do the Right Thing? Pierre-Alexis Mével PETER LANG Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National- bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Mével, Pierre-Alexis, author. Title: Subtitling African American English into French : can we do the right thing? / Pierre-Alexis Mével. Description: Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, [2017] | Series: New trends in translation studies ; 23 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016024293 | ISBN 9783034318976 (alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Drama--Translating. | Dubbing of motion pictures. | Black English--Translating into French. | Sublanguage--Films for foreign speakers. | Translating and interpreting. Classification: LCC P306.97.D73 M39 2016 | DDC 448/.022108996073--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024293 ISSN 1664-249X ISBN 978-3-0343-1897-6 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78707-641-9 (ePDF) ISBN 978-1-78707-642-6 (ePub) • ISBN 978-1-78707-643-3 (mobi) © Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2017 Wabernstrasse 40, CH-3007 Bern, Switzerland [email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. Printed in Germany Contents List of Figures and Tables vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction Translation and Moral Dilemma 1 Chapter 1 African American English and Its Representations 25 Chapter 2 Subtitling and Linguistic Variation 89 Chapter 3 Analysis of the French Subtitles of the Films of the Corpus 119 Chapter 4 Domestication/Foreignization: A Valid Framework for the Study of Subtitled Films? 185 Conclusion 217 Filmography 223 Bibliography 225 Index 237 Figures and Tables Figure Figure 1: Typical continuum of translation procedures. 188 Tables Table 1: Examples of terms of reference 40 Table 2: The polysemiotic nature of films 95 Table 3: The use of three features in the subtitles of films of the corpus 147