Measuring the perception of the screen translation of Un Posto al Sole: A cross-cultural study

This paper presents and discusses the results of a study designed to investigate to what extent the places where viewers live and the role of the national community to which they belong, interact and influence the perception of culture-bound issues in the fictional context of a famous Italian soap opera, Un Posto al Sole. Although deeply rooted in the Neapolitan cultural context, this programme is assiduously watched in all parts of Italy, and also translated into English. In order to measure the degree of comprehension, and consequently of appreciation, of the programme, some scenes of this soap were shown to a group of Neapolitans, a group of Milanese, and a group of Americans based in Naples who were exposed to the episode in its subtitled version. A careful analysis of data obtained through a questionnaire submitted to the three groups has shown that in Un Posto al Sole there is a significant residue of untranslatable culture associated with the linguistic structures of source language which is only partially conveyed, or is not conveyed at all. Our survey verifies that this affects the degree of appreciation.