The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the English language on dubbed Anglo-Ame... more The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the English language on dubbed Anglo-American TV series. By drawing on the Italian dialogues of the musical drama series Fame (1982) and Glee (2009), we will look for traces of English in Italian dubbing, identifying various types of Anglicisms, i.e., direct and indirect English borrowings. Secondly, the two series will be compared in order to assess whether and how the English influence on dubbed television language has increased over the years, i.e., whether more recent dubbed dialogues are more anglified than older ones.
The aim of this paper is to explore how foreign languages (i.e., languages other than English) an... more The aim of this paper is to explore how foreign languages (i.e., languages other than English) and non-native varieties of English are used in Anglo-American animated films and to investigate the strategies adopted in Italian dubbing to deal with such multilingual features. The paper combines insights into professional practice with a close examination of a specific case study. The film Despicable Me 2 (dir. Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Illumination Entertainment, 2013) has been chosen for analysis since it displays more than one language and several language varieties (British English, American English and foreign-accented English). The film also exploits visual and verbal stereotypes which enhance the comedic elements of the film. This multiplicity of voices and identities through language variety represents a challenge for audiovisual translators. By analysing the representation of characters and drawing on personal communication with Italian dubbing practitioners, the article ai...
The aim of this paper is to explore how humour in the four Shrek films has been dubbed into Itali... more The aim of this paper is to explore how humour in the four Shrek films has been dubbed into Italian. These feature films have been chosen because they present different layers of meaning and are addressed to children as well as adults. Their subverting of well-known fairy tales, their numerous intertextual allusions as well as cultural references provide a wide range of challenging material for translators and dialogue writers. Particular attention is devoted to the several instances of Verbally Expressed Humour in the films, and to the difficulties that these pose in translation for dubbing. The ultimate objective is to identify occurrences of different types of humour that rely on linguistic and cultural features and to describe the translation strategies adopted by the Italian translator and dialogue writer.
This paper will explore the representation of non-native varieties of English in Dreamwork’s anim... more This paper will explore the representation of non-native varieties of English in Dreamwork’s animated film Madagascar 3 (2012) and will investigate the strategies adopted by Italian dubbing professionals. Language variation is often exploited in films and in animated films in particular to provide characterisation, to construct identities and to trigger humour. Linguistic varieties and accents play an important part in defining characters and are often conveyors of stereotypes (Lippi-Green, 1997). In Italian dubbing the translational norm seems to be that of levelling out different varieties by using standard Italian (Chiaro, 2008). However, comedies and animated films constitute an exception to this homogenizing norm, as they convey linguistic variation to some extent. In particular, although Italian dubbing professionals usually refrain from using Italian regional dialects or regional accents in order to avoid unintended effects and stereotyping, they sometimes resort to ethnolect...
Gnomeo & Juliet (Kelly Asbury, 2011) is a humorous animated adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy i... more Gnomeo & Juliet (Kelly Asbury, 2011) is a humorous animated adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy in which the feuding families are portrayed as garden gnomes who, after racing and fighting on lawnmowers, stealing orchids and chatting with the Bard’s statue, live happily ever after, accompanied by Elton John’s songs. The film is set in the UK and most of the characters speak British English. This paper examines how dialects are exploited in the original English version to define characters and analyses the creative domestication process whereby the story is turned into an Italian tale by using Italian regional dialects.
The aim of this article is to investigate the presence of direct English borrowings in dubbed Ita... more The aim of this article is to investigate the presence of direct English borrowings in dubbed Italian, focusing in particular on a genre that has received little scholarly attention so far, i.e., animated films. The article takes as a sample eight American animated films released between 2010 and 2015 and produced by Disney, Disney Pixar, Dreamworks, Sony Pictures and 20 th Century Fox. By examining the English and Italian transcriptions of the dialogues and analysing each film several times, the article attempts to understand whether there exist any recurring patterns or norms regarding the presence of English words in dubbed dialogues. A list of direct Anglicisms occurring in the dubbed dialogues is provided and preliminary observations on the quantity and quality of the Anglicisms are made, taking into account the corpus as a whole but also each film individually. The preliminary results seem to suggest that no regulations or rules exist and that the number and type of Anglicisms...
The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the English language on dubbed Anglo-Ame... more The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the English language on dubbed Anglo-American TV series. By drawing on the Italian dialogues of the musical drama series Fame (1982) and Glee (2009), we will look for traces of English in Italian dubbing, identifying various types of Anglicisms, i.e., direct and indirect English borrowings. Secondly, the two series will be compared in order to assess whether and how the English influence on dubbed television language has increased over the years, i.e., whether more recent dubbed dialogues are more anglified than older ones.
The aim of this paper is to explore how foreign languages (i.e., languages other than English) an... more The aim of this paper is to explore how foreign languages (i.e., languages other than English) and non-native varieties of English are used in Anglo-American animated films and to investigate the strategies adopted in Italian dubbing to deal with such multilingual features. The paper combines insights into professional practice with a close examination of a specific case study. The film Despicable Me 2 (dir. Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Illumination Entertainment, 2013) has been chosen for analysis since it displays more than one language and several language varieties (British English, American English and foreign-accented English). The film also exploits visual and verbal stereotypes which enhance the comedic elements of the film. This multiplicity of voices and identities through language variety represents a challenge for audiovisual translators. By analysing the representation of characters and drawing on personal communication with Italian dubbing practitioners, the article ai...
The aim of this paper is to explore how humour in the four Shrek films has been dubbed into Itali... more The aim of this paper is to explore how humour in the four Shrek films has been dubbed into Italian. These feature films have been chosen because they present different layers of meaning and are addressed to children as well as adults. Their subverting of well-known fairy tales, their numerous intertextual allusions as well as cultural references provide a wide range of challenging material for translators and dialogue writers. Particular attention is devoted to the several instances of Verbally Expressed Humour in the films, and to the difficulties that these pose in translation for dubbing. The ultimate objective is to identify occurrences of different types of humour that rely on linguistic and cultural features and to describe the translation strategies adopted by the Italian translator and dialogue writer.
This paper will explore the representation of non-native varieties of English in Dreamwork’s anim... more This paper will explore the representation of non-native varieties of English in Dreamwork’s animated film Madagascar 3 (2012) and will investigate the strategies adopted by Italian dubbing professionals. Language variation is often exploited in films and in animated films in particular to provide characterisation, to construct identities and to trigger humour. Linguistic varieties and accents play an important part in defining characters and are often conveyors of stereotypes (Lippi-Green, 1997). In Italian dubbing the translational norm seems to be that of levelling out different varieties by using standard Italian (Chiaro, 2008). However, comedies and animated films constitute an exception to this homogenizing norm, as they convey linguistic variation to some extent. In particular, although Italian dubbing professionals usually refrain from using Italian regional dialects or regional accents in order to avoid unintended effects and stereotyping, they sometimes resort to ethnolect...
Gnomeo & Juliet (Kelly Asbury, 2011) is a humorous animated adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy i... more Gnomeo & Juliet (Kelly Asbury, 2011) is a humorous animated adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy in which the feuding families are portrayed as garden gnomes who, after racing and fighting on lawnmowers, stealing orchids and chatting with the Bard’s statue, live happily ever after, accompanied by Elton John’s songs. The film is set in the UK and most of the characters speak British English. This paper examines how dialects are exploited in the original English version to define characters and analyses the creative domestication process whereby the story is turned into an Italian tale by using Italian regional dialects.
The aim of this article is to investigate the presence of direct English borrowings in dubbed Ita... more The aim of this article is to investigate the presence of direct English borrowings in dubbed Italian, focusing in particular on a genre that has received little scholarly attention so far, i.e., animated films. The article takes as a sample eight American animated films released between 2010 and 2015 and produced by Disney, Disney Pixar, Dreamworks, Sony Pictures and 20 th Century Fox. By examining the English and Italian transcriptions of the dialogues and analysing each film several times, the article attempts to understand whether there exist any recurring patterns or norms regarding the presence of English words in dubbed dialogues. A list of direct Anglicisms occurring in the dubbed dialogues is provided and preliminary observations on the quantity and quality of the Anglicisms are made, taking into account the corpus as a whole but also each film individually. The preliminary results seem to suggest that no regulations or rules exist and that the number and type of Anglicisms...
Even though the study of television fiction emerged as a relevant field of study in the 1970s, it... more Even though the study of television fiction emerged as a relevant field of study in the 1970s, it is especially in the last three decades that attention has increasingly focused on TV series as a sophisticated form of expression and a fertile ground for research into the cultural dynamics that govern the representation of cultural identity, class, race, ethnicity, gender, and the use of language. The present collection originates from a research project, financed by the Department of Humanities of the University of Trieste, whose findings were first shared and debated with scholars from other Italian academic institutions, as well as students and the general public, in the course of a twoday conference held at the “Stazione Rogers” in Trieste, on 15-16 October, 2021. It presents, in amply revised and expanded form, papers which were first presented in that venue and which are representative of a variety of approaches to the study of TV series. The book discusses such acclaimed TV series as The Americans, The Affair, Modern Family, Dragnet, and When They See Us.
This book describes the dubbing process of English-language animated films produced by US compani... more This book describes the dubbing process of English-language animated films produced by US companies in the 21st century, exploring how linguistic variation and multilingualism are used to create characters and identities and examining how Italian dubbing professionals deal with this linguistic characterisation. The analysis carried out relies on a diverse range of research tools: text analysis, corpus study and personal communications with dubbing practitioners. The book describes the dubbing workflow and dubbing strategies in Italy and seeks to identify recurrent patterns and therefore norms, as well as stereotypes or creativity in the way multilingualism and linguistic variation are tackled.
This book is an introduction to translating for dubbing from English into Italian, with a focus o... more This book is an introduction to translating for dubbing from English into Italian, with a focus on linguistic and cultural aspects. It is addressed to university students who embark on the study of audiovisual or screen translation for the first time. It provides a comprehensive overview of the most important theoretical approaches to the study of audiovisual translation, and an analysis of the linguistic and cultural issues that need to be dealt with when translating for dubbing. Examples are drawn from several films. This text will help students reflect on the meaning of translation, on its difficulties and on the different factors that may influence it. It also aims to help them improve their linguistic and cultural awareness, and their ability to compare English and Italian at different linguistic levels.
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