German and English Studies

Primarily known as an Oxford professor and philologist, Tolkien was far more than just the writer of two fantasy books (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) and few academic essays as one can normally expect: Tolkien became a landmark of English literature and a critical point for the spread of the literary genre of fantasy.

The history of the English language is still fascinating scholars because of its absolute uniqueness: even though it belongs to the Germanic languages, its distinguishing feature is the important influence of several languages including also non-Germanic languages such as Latin or French. However a fundamental role was played by Old Norse, the language of the Scandinavian tribes which settled in England between the eighth and the eleventh century.

Ein Thema wie die Literatur kann nicht als eine strenge Konzepte ausgedacht werden: in jeder Periode unserer Geschichte wird ein neuer Begriff verarbeitet um Literatur zu machen.
Mit dem Wort „Begriff“ meine ich: neue Art zu schreiben; neue Öffentlichkeit, die man anspricht; neue Bedeutung und Werte weiterzugeben.

Insbesondere in der heutigen Welt kann die Übersetzung nicht ohne Berücksichtigung bestimmter Faktoren wie etwa der kulturellen Unterschiede, die zwischen den beiden Ländern der betreffenden Sprachen zwangsläufig bestehen, umgesetzt werden. Der Zweck meiner Arbeit wird es sein, die individuellen Konzepte der interkulturellen Übersetzung und Kommunikation und damit die Verbindung zwischen diesen beiden Aspekten hervorzuheben.

Although the profession of translating movies was already an established practice, the rise of non-professional or fan translations in the 90s called into question the role of theaudiovisual translator. In my case, starting from the same source text (the movie The Hateful Eight by Quentin Tarantino), my aim is to examine two target texts (Italian subtitles): the one produced by the official translator(s), in other words, the subtitles included in the official and commercial version of the picture, and the other by amateurs or enthusiasts (fansubs) included
in the downloaded version of the film.
The dissertation will deal with the role of the audiovisual translator (in this case subtitler) in our time, what are the common translation practices and strategies, how they have changed throughout time.
Due to the advent of Web 2.0, new phenomenons have emerged, such as fansubbing and crowdsourcing. These two practices are closely linked and they are a product of what is known as the democratization of knowledge. This has challenged almost any aspect of our life and has
shortened the distances between people. How may a non-academic approach highlight new features and techniques for such an established practice? Could professional subtitling and fansubbing influence each other and give birth to a new and more satisfying form of translation?
Which would be the points of contact between these two practices?Firstly, my research will offer a brief overview of the major academic contributions in audiovisual translation. Among them, I will include the works of Perego (2005), and Díaz Cintas and Muñoz (2006), especially the latter are well-known for being among the first scholars who published papers on fansubbing and online communities interested in subtitling cartoons, films, and TV series. On the other hand, Perego gives some historic notions on the practice of subtitling and the techniques adopted such as those elaborated by Gottlieb (1992) and Lomheim (1999).
After that, data analysis will take place. The chosen methodology is an error analysis of subtitles, based on the FAR model elaborated by Jan Pedersen (2017), and an analysis of the Italian forum that produced the fansubs under examination. The interview is essential to understand current dynamics in an online community, as people and their practices are influenced by the historical and social context to which they belong.

Lungo il corso del XX secolo, soprattutto nella prima metà, spesso la produzione di patrimonio rientrava nei processi di controllo dello Stato e della burocrazia e del progetto di costruzione della nazione. In questo momento storico la cultura era funzionale nella stabilizzazione dello Stato-nazione e nell’opposizione reciproca delle nazioni stesse.
In Italia, un periodo in cui era centrale il controllo dello Stato sui processi di patrimonializzazione è stato sicuramente il ventennio fascista. Patrimoni che potevano risalire al mito dell’Antica Roma o delle imprese belliche e non del regime stesso. È il caso del “Monumento alla Vittoria” a Bolzano.

Nonostante l’amministrazione Clinton abbia avuto svolte interventiste (e.g. Operazione Allied Force), esse erano però inserite in una cultura internazionalista, cosmopolita e di interdipendenza, al fine di preservare il consenso a livello globale. Questo equilibrio fra eccezionalismo statunitense e consenso internazionale venne meno col nuovo subentrato alla Casa Bianca, George Walker Bush.