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Article published In: Babel
Vol. 63:4 (2017) ► pp.556–579

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Censorship in English-Arabic subtitling

 | Sultan Qaboos University |
Published online: 20 November 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.63.4.05tha
This article draws on three American movies to illustrate censorship in English-Arabic subtitling. The paper argues that in translating languages of little cultural affinity, censorship serves as a remedy that can narrow the potential cultural gap. However, the paper shows that the films have been exposed to excessive censorship in the Arabic subtitles, although not in the original film. Therefore, the subtitles, usually viewed as a verbal-visual channel, work to restrict the flow of communication, depriving the target audience of much information existing in the Source Language (SL) dialogue. The fact that the shots help us understand what is being said is not fully taken into consideration by the satellite channels. The study finally reveals that two major strategies are employed in the translation, namely the omission of obscene utterances in the SL and the rendition of the SL obscenity into a less offensive equivalent in the Target Language (TL).
Résumé
Cet article examine la censure dans le sous-titrage anglais-arabe, telle qu’illustrée par trois films américains. L’article soutient qu’en traduisant des langues présentant peu d’affinités culturelles, la censure permet de réduire l’éventuel fossé culturel. Cependant, l’article montre que les films ont fait l’objet d’une censure excessive dans les sous-titres arabes, alors que ce n’était pas le cas dans les films originaux. Par conséquent, les sous-titres, généralement considérés comme un canal visuel verbal, ont pour effet de restreindre le flux de communication en privant le public cible de beaucoup d’informations présentes dans le dialogue dans la langue source. Le fait que les séquences nous aident à comprendre ce qui se dit n’est pas totalement pris en compte par les chaînes par satellite. L’étude révèle enfin que deux stratégies majeures sont utilisées dans la traduction, à savoir l’omission des propos obscènes dans la langue source et la traduction des obscénités dans la langue source par un équivalent moins choquant dans la langue cible.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Subtitling and censorship
    • 2.1Subtitling
    • 2.2Censorship
  • 3.Subtitling and technical constraints
  • 4.Translation strategies
  • 5.Methodology
    • 5.1Data of the study
    • 5.2Significance of the study
  • 6.Analysis and discussion
    • 6.1Censorship on hardcore sex
    • 6.2Censorship on kinship
    • 6.3Censorship on religious people
    • 6.4Censorship on ethnic base
    • 6.5Censorship on mythological reference
    • 6.6Censorship on drinking
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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