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Translation as Multimedia and Audiovisual Practice

Module description

Multimedia translation is a fast-growing practice devised to respond to the need to access the languages in the media globally. With the aid of electronic programmes, this specialised branch of translation renders multimedia content into words, turning the screen into a multifaceted meaning-making experience. This module will introduce you to the art of subtitling and subtitled artefacts as multi-semiotic products. Special emphasis will be placed on the role that interlingual subtitles play in the production and consumption of audiovisual artefacts across cultural and linguistic borders. Students with linguistic sensitivity, including Translation Studies students, and Film & Screen Studies students, will particularly benefit from this module.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to introduce you to translation as multimedia and audiovisual practice grounded in key principles in communication, media accessibility and media meaning making. You will acquire a critical understanding of the impact that multimodality has on the practice of translation; you will familiarize yourself with the concepts and strategies that multimedia translators use to mediate audiovisual content; you will engage critically with the ability that subtitles have to facilitate communication across cultures in a variety of global contexts; and you will appraise the visual experience that they shape as intersemiotic and narrative devices, integral to audiences’ consumption of artefacts. This will give you a grounding in a variety of approaches to the analysis of subtitles and the role that multimedia translation plays within subtitled cultural products and, more generally, a web of cross-cultural relations. Drawing on a number of theories, trends and practical discussions, you will analyse authentic examples of audiovisual artefacts and contextualize the subtitling strategies used in relation to themes, audiences, cultures, communicative purposes and media. Finally, this module aims to enable you to engage critically with the constraints, the creativity and the power of subtitling as well as the standardised requirements of the multimedia translation industry, with special attention to the creative industries’ response to linguistic and cultural accessibility needs.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Use and appraise critical knowledge of translation as multimedia and audiovisual practice in depth; show detailed knowledge and make appropriate use of key concepts in the fields of media accessibility, communication and media meaning making.
• 2. Produce detailed critical analysis of subtitling applied to a variety of cultures and global contexts; apply and evaluate translation approaches to subtitles as communicative, intersemiotic and narrative devices.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Demonstrate the ability to engage critically and in depth with recent trends, key concepts and approaches at the intersection of Translation Studies and Film & Screen Studies.
• 4. Demonstrate a practical and detailed understanding of the requirements, constraints, and challenges in a specialist field of both translation practice and film and screen distribution.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Engage critically and in depth with a field of professional practice that combines constraints (including industry standards), creativity, and the power to effect cultural change.
• 6. Demonstrate the ability to research complex ideas (including techniques, strategies and approaches) in order to produce a written argument to a deadline.

Syllabus plan

This module includes ten hours of seminars delivered in the first five weeks of term. It will introduce you to translation as multimedia practice, media accessibility and the interlinks between multimedia translation and Translation Studies. You will then familiarize yourself with subtitling strategies as a creative practice, placing emphasis on interlingual subtitles as intersemiotic, communicative and narrative devices, integral to audiences’ meaning-making experiences in a variety of global contexts. The module will introduce you to key concepts, current research and recent trends in the field of audiovisual and multimedia translation, which may include fansubbing, and representation of gender, minorities and/or marginalized groups. Explorations may encompass feature films, TV shows (including sitcoms, children’s programmes and documentaries) and video games.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral- if you miss an assessment for certified reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral- if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Cronin, Michael. 2009. Translation Goes to the Movies. London: Routledge.
• De Marco, Marcella. 2012. Audiovisual Translation through a Gender Lens. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.
• Dwyer, Tessa. 2018. Speaking in Subtitles: Revaluing Screen Translation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• DiIÌ?az-Cintas, Jorge (ed). 2009. New Trends in Audiovisual Translation. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
• Egoyan, Atom and Ian Balfour. 2004. Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film. MIT Press.
• Gambier, Yves and Henrik Gottlieb (eds). 2001. (Multi) media Translation: Concepts, Practices, and Research. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.
• Gambier, Yves and Sara Ramos Pinto (eds). 2018. Audiovisual Translation: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.
• Incalcaterra McLoughlin, Laura, Biscio, Marie, and Maire Aine Ní Mhainnín (eds). 2011. Audiovisual Translation: Subtitles and Subtitling: Theory and Practice. Oxford and New York: Peter Lang.
• Rundle, Christopher (ed). 2021. Routledge Handbook of Translation History. London: Routledge. 
• PeÌ?rez-GonzaÌ?lez, Luis (ed). 2018. The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation. London: Routledge.
• PeÌ?rez-GonzaÌ?lez, Luis. 2014. Audiovisual Translation: Theories, Methods and Issues. London: Routledge.
• Remael, Aline, Orero Pilar and Mary Carrol (eds). 2012. Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility at the Crossroads: Media for All 3. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• https://subtitlingworldcinema.com/

Companion Website to Luis Pérez-González’s Audiovisual Translation: Theories, Methods and Issues. London: Routledge (2014)

Key words search

Multimodality; Multimediality; Subtitling; Translation; Screen Studies