Book review. Audiodeskription als partielle Translation. Modell und Methode (Translatorische Forschungsbeiträge 4). vi + 197 pp.Münster: LIT Verlag, 2014.
Table of contents
This book presents a user-centered model and method for audio description. Audio description is a communicative aid that translates images and other visual elements using language and speech. It is aimed at enhancing the participation of blind and partially sighted persons in visual and audiovisual culture and communication. Translation Studies in the 21st century has actively engaged with audio description, studying it from various perspectives. One focus has been the reception of audio description, and various studies have set out to answer questions such as what visually impaired audiences expect from audio description (cf. Chmiel and Mazur 2012). The present book by Bernd Benecke also focuses on the audience, but places them at the very center of the process of creating audio description. The book advocates that by involving the user in the translation process, the resulting translation is more enjoyable and understandable for the target audience. To this end, the book explains how audio description can (and should!) take into account the ‘blind experience,’ which builds on the auditory reception of an audiovisual text. If, for instance, an action in a film can be deduced from the soundtrack (e.g., a phone ringing or a door closing), it does not need a verbalization in the audio description. Accordingly, Benecke’s book defines audio description as partial translation (partielle Translation), since the translation actually occurs in one part of the material (visuals into verbal) while another part remains untouched (the soundtrack). The two words in the book’s title, Modell and Methode, boil down its double contribution to good effect: the book presents a comprehensive theoretical model for audio description and describes a step-by-step method for putting the model into practice.