Literary translation as multimedial communication

Research project P 14304 Literary translation as multimedial communication Mary SNELL-HORNBY 08.05.2000 In Translation Studies multimedial is the term used to describe such texts as film scripts, radio plays, opera libretti and drama texts, and also advertising copy, where the text as a whole does not only consist of written verbal items, but also includes nonverbal elements such as image and sound. The special problems involved in translating such texts have only in recent years become a subject for research; translation of this kind is not merely linguistic transcoding but is rather a cultural transfer as understood in functional translation theory, i.e. a target text is created which is to function as a whole within the target culture. The aims of the planned research project are firstly, to establish the issue of multimedial translation as a field of research in Austria and to develop it by means of interdisciplinary and international cooperation; it also sets out to investigate the current practice of media translation in Austria and to work out cooperation models and training programmes for the future with both a solid theoretical foundation and practical relevance for the needs of the profession. The project is based on five pilot studies (A-E): a survey of subtitling activities in Austria, with research on the job profile of the translator or subtitler and the degree of acceptance of subtitles among TV and cinema audiences (A); a study (based on some Italian films) on how the language of a film creates cultural and social identities, with research into the ideological aims of the producers and the reactions among the audiences (B); a study of the now increasingly popular film adaptations of classical novels, as based on some English quality films and their dubbed German versions, with research into the work conditions of translators and dubbers (C); a study of the special problems involved in dubbing films of Shakespeare`s plays, with particular emphasis on the elements of comedy and dated cultural allusions, whereby suitable strategies are to be worked out for translators and dubbers (D); and finally a study on the use of the multilingual audio guide (which is now being increasingly used in Austrian cultural institutions, though still less so than in the UK) and on the public response to it, with research into the modalities of text production and the work conditions of the translators (E). The methods used in the research projects will be mainly empirical: questionnaires and interviews, statistical surveys and detailed corpus research. The main project is planned to extend over two years: the first 12 months will be devoted to collecting material and carrying out the interviews and surveys, the second phase will consist of analyzing and evaluating the results.