Dr Katerina Perdikaki

The aim of this paper is to put forward a model which builds on the affinities between translation and adaptation and which can be used to systematise the analysis of film adaptation as a modality of translation. Translation and adaptation have much in common, as both processes involve a transposition of meaning and are highly context-dependent (Aragay 2005; Leitch 2008; Venuti 2007). Theorists working in Translation and Adaptation Studies have highlighted the potential synergies between the two fields (Milton (2009) and Stam (2005) respectively). Translation Studies has addressed a vast array of perspectives, including textual and sociocultural perspectives. On the other hand, the study of film adaptation seems to have limited itself to comparative or thematic analyses between book and film. In line with this, the point of departure of this paper is the observation that the methodological advancements in Translation Studies can be used to bolster a systematic analysis of film adaptation.

Adaptation is prominent in many facets of the creative industries, such as the performing arts (e.g. theatre, opera) and various forms of media (e.g. film, television, radio, video games). As such, adaptation can be regarded as the creative translation of a narrative from one medium or mode to another. This paper focuses on film adaptation and examines its role in cultural production and dissemination within the broader polysystem (Even-Zohar 1978a). Adaptation has been viewed as a process which can shed light on meaningful questions on a social, cultural and ideological level (cf. Casetti 2004; Corrigan 2014; Venuti 2007). Nevertheless, an integrated framework for the systematic analysis of adaptations seems to have remained under-researched. The paper puts forward a model for adaptation analysis which highlights the factors that condition adaptation as a process and as a product. In this way, adaptation is studied as a system monitored by economic, creative and social agendas which nevertheless transforms the communicating vessels of the literary system and the film industry. To illustrate this, the paper discusses how the two systems and various creative and socioeconomic considerations interlace in the latest film adaptation of The Great Gatsby (Luhrmann 2013). It concludes on the benefits of a holistic approach to adaptation.

The volume offers a rich overview of research in the field of translation conducted by scholars from different countries working with the English-French language pair. Creativity is looked at from a cross-cultural perspective, taking into account many diverse aspects and angles, which involve different processes and actors. Divided into two subsections and accompanied by a double preface in English as well as by a foreword and an introduction in both languages, the book is the result of demanding editing work.

This paper reports on the findings of a survey designed to investigate the emotions experienced by subtitlers who work on sensitive audiovisual material and whether these emotions affect their subtitling performance. For the purposes of this paper, the term sensitive audiovisual material concerns audiovisual texts which deal with controversial and emotive topics, such as the abuse of people and/or animals, war, torture, and death, among others. The concept of performance is taken to broadly refer to the subtitling process and does not cover metrics of quality assurance. The paper focuses on two aspects of the study: (1) the emotions that were most commonly reported to be experienced by the subtitlers, along with the aspects of the audiovisual text that seem to trigger them, and (2) the ways in which this emotional impact affects the subtitlers’ performance. Discussion of the latter aspect draws on examples provided by the subtitlers that illustrate how their subtitling process changes due to the experienced emotional impact. The paper concludes by putting forward training suggestions for more effective handling of emotional impact, which may provide the platform for further research on this topic.

This article examines the interrelation between adaptation and translation and the impact of this interrelation on the communication of cultural content in audiovisual products. The paper focuses on the case of the American adaptation Empresses in the Palace, which is based on the Chinese TV series The Legend of Zhen Huan. Empresses in the Palace was subtitled from Chinese into English and it was broadcast on US Netflix. The study discusses the adaptation changes that occur between the Chinese and the American version and the subtitling strategies used to render culture-specific references (CSRs). The American adaptation is a considerably edited version of the Chinese series; yet it is overloaded with cultural information which may be inaccessible to an English-speaking audience. The analysis shows that the condensation involved in the American adaptation affects the translation of CSRs and has potential implications for the circulation of cultural products in a digital era

Contemporary theoretical trends in Adaptation Studies and Translation Studies (Aragay 2005; Catrysse 2014; Milton 2009; Venuti 2007) envisage synergies between the two areas that can contribute to the sociocultural and artistic value of adaptations. This suggests the application of theoretical insights derived from Translation Studies to the adaptation of novels for the screen (i.e., film adaptations). It is argued that the process of transposing a novel into a filmic product entails an act of bidirectional communication between the book, the novel and the involved contexts of production and reception. Particular emphasis is placed on the role that context plays in this communication. Context here is taken to include paratextual material pertinent to the adapted text and to the film. Such paratext may lead to fruitful analyses of adaptations and, thus, surpass the myopic criterion of fidelity which has traditionally dominated Adaptation Studies. The analysis uses examples of adaptation shifts (i.e., changes between the source novel and the film adaptation) from the film P.S. I Love You (LaGravenese 2007), which are examined against interviews of the author, the director and the cast, the film trailer and one film review.

The purpose of this paper is to approach film adaptation as a modality of translation and to provide a systematic analysis of the changes occurring in the adaptation of a novel for the big screen. These changes, i.e. adaptation shifts, are examined by means of a model that consists of a descriptive/comparative component and an interpretive component. The model is derived from combining insights from adaptation and translation studies and thus builds on the interdisciplinary nature of adaptation studies so as to offer a comprehensive methodological tool for the analysis of adaptations. As processes and products, adaptation and translation involve an act of communication between a source and a target text within a new sociocultural context. In this light, adaptation can be examined as a case of intersemiotic translation in that it involves the transfer of meaning between two different media; in the case of film adaptation, more specifically, meaning is transferred from book to film and the dynamics between the source novel and adaptation is juxtaposed with that between a source text and its translation. The adaptation model is applied to the film adaptation Silver Linings Playbook with an aim to understand the aspects in which the adaptation differs from the source novel and the rationale behind the adaptation shifts. Finally, it is argued that such an analysis from a descriptive as well as an interpretive perspective can lead to a more holistic understanding of adaptation as a cultural phenomenon in the contemporary creative industries.

This paper examines the translation of culturally-derived humour – i.e. humour that is created by means of extralinguistic culture-bound references (ECRs) – in the US-American TV series The New Normal (Adler and Murphy 2013). The data were culled from two episodes that were subtitled into Greek for the purposes of the present study. Both episodes feature a number of instances where assumptions associated with ECRs enhance the intended comic effect. Emphasis is placed on the most indicative examples, where the decision-making process was mainly directed towards facilitating the target audience’s understanding of the humour. The article investigates the identification, description and scholarly analysis of certain subtitling strategies that could contribute to a new model of humour translation in audiovisual texts. The employed strategies interact with factors pertinent to: a) the target audience’s sociocultural familiarity with ECRs and b) elements of characterization within the bounds of the TV programme.