An Intercultural Perspective on Subtitling Cultural Gaps for International Films: A Case of Fifteen Iranian Films

Abstract

Cultural products, particularly films, are considered tools for exporting and diffusing the culture of one society to another. Films selected for international festivals are a case in point. However, subtitling such films for an audience of other languages is a demanding task. This challenge may negatively impact the films' qualification, although they may technically and aesthetically be evaluated and ranked on top. The attraction of the films screened depends largely on how successfully certain features of the films, such as cultural references, including the lexical gaps, are treated in English subtitling. The present study aimed to study the lexical gaps in several Iranian films screened at international festivals. To identify lexical gaps between Persian and English, as the international and common language of subtitling for international film festivals, Darwish’s (2010) taxonomy of lexical gaps is used, and to explore how they were handled in the English subtitles, Pederson’s (2011) source-oriented, target-oriented, and neither-source-nor-target oriented subtitling strategies were employed. The results revealed that cultural substitution and generalization (paraphrasing) were two target-oriented strategies more frequently used in subtitling the lexical gaps and cultural terms.

A Corpus-based Evaluation of English-Mandarin Cultural References between Fansubbing and Official Subtitling

“…On a practical level, this study highlights that training subtitlers can be effective in the production of optimal translations of cultural terms. As subtitles for films aim to globally disseminate cultural content, challenges related to culture and language could result in inadvertent loss or misinterpretation of the cultural essence of a film (Sanatifar & Ayob, 2022). Therefore, it is important to emphasize subtitling groups that possess intercultural competence to overcome language and cultural barriers, preventing loss or distortion of cultural content in films.…”

“…Cultural references are specific words, phrases, or concepts that are associated with a particular culture or community. A relatively small number of scholars in translation studies, and even fewer in AVT, have proposed systematic definitions of CRs (Ranzato, 2015). However, Díaz-Cintas and Remael (2020) proposed that CRs are "items that are tied to a community's culture, history, or geography, and they can pose serious translation challenge " (p. 221).…”

“…In the field of subtitle translation, some taxonomies have been proposed by leading scholars (e.g., Díaz-Cintas & Remael, 2014Nedergaard-Larsen, 1993;Pedersen, 2005Pedersen, , 2011Ranzato, 2015). Nedergaard-Larsen (1993) presented an influential classification of translation strategies for extralinguistic culture-bound problems.…”

Identifying and Resolving Conflicts Using Local Wisdom: A Qualitative Study

“…Azharbekova et al (2020) and Waters (2020) define cultural semantics as the meaning that a language has according to the culture of its speakers. Sanatifar, S. & Ayob (2022) also suggested that a language's lexicon reflects its cultural environment. In other words, cultural semantics translate the meaning of expressions so that the knowledge system is known and reflected in the mindset view of life and worldview of the cultural context in society (Dine, 2021).…”

Translation of Patient-Related Outcome Measures

“…The concept of culture "originally referred to the humanist ideal of what was civilized in a developed society (e.g., music, art, food, and drink, dress, language, and so on)" [11]. Later it is described as how people live (e.g., rituals, traditions, etc.)…”