Carol O'Sullivan and Jean-François Cornu (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This rich collection of essays by film historians, translation scholars, archivists, and curators presents film translation history as an exciting and timely area of research. It builds on the last ...
More
This rich collection of essays by film historians, translation scholars, archivists, and curators presents film translation history as an exciting and timely area of research. It builds on the last 20 years of research into the history of dubbing and subtitling, but goes further, by showing how subtitling, dubbing, and other forms of audiovisual translation developed over the first 50 years of the 20th century.
This is the first book-length study, in any language, of the international history of audiovisual translation to include silent cinema. Its scope covers national contexts both within Europe and beyond. It shows how audiovisual translation practices were closely tied to their commercial, technological, and industrial contexts. The Translation of Films, 1900–1950 draws extensively on archival sources and expertise, and revisits and challenges some of the established narratives around film languages and the coming of sound. For instance, the volume shows how silent films, far from being straightforward to translate, went through a complex process of editing for international distribution. It also closely tracks the ferment of experiments in film translation during the transition to sound from 1927 to 1934 and later, as markets adjusted to the demands of synchronised film.
The Translation of Films, 1900–1950 argues for a broader understanding of film translation: far from being limited to language transfer, it encompasses editing, localisation, censorship, paratextual framing, and other factors. It advocates for film translation to be considered as a crucial contribution not only to the worldwide circulation of films, but also to the art of cinema.Less
This rich collection of essays by film historians, translation scholars, archivists, and curators presents film translation history as an exciting and timely area of research. It builds on the last 20 years of research into the history of dubbing and subtitling, but goes further, by showing how subtitling, dubbing, and other forms of audiovisual translation developed over the first 50 years of the 20th century.
This is the first book-length study, in any language, of the international history of audiovisual translation to include silent cinema. Its scope covers national contexts both within Europe and beyond. It shows how audiovisual translation practices were closely tied to their commercial, technological, and industrial contexts. The Translation of Films, 1900–1950 draws extensively on archival sources and expertise, and revisits and challenges some of the established narratives around film languages and the coming of sound. For instance, the volume shows how silent films, far from being straightforward to translate, went through a complex process of editing for international distribution. It also closely tracks the ferment of experiments in film translation during the transition to sound from 1927 to 1934 and later, as markets adjusted to the demands of synchronised film.
The Translation of Films, 1900–1950 argues for a broader understanding of film translation: far from being limited to language transfer, it encompasses editing, localisation, censorship, paratextual framing, and other factors. It advocates for film translation to be considered as a crucial contribution not only to the worldwide circulation of films, but also to the art of cinema.
Edith Hall
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199288076
- eISBN:
- 9780191713439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288076.003.0015
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of ...
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Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of modern-language translations. This chapter argues that the phenomenon of the arrival of Greek and Roman authors in modern languages needs to be appreciated in full diachronic depth. It calls for a history of translations of the classics and explores the social implications of this. Translation, especially forms of translation linked to theatrical performance, has allowed the classics to be disseminated to an audience that is much wider and more diversified and internally conflictual than is usually assumed. Exploring the history and role of mass market translations, disinterring long forgotten vernacular versions of classical authors, appreciating the importance of performance as access route to the classics, and applauding the hard work and courage of the pioneers in the field could therefore all have significant roles to play in breaking down the sort of prejudices that, in an era of fast-expanding Higher Education, lead to the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans being discarded altogether. For translation history conducted along these lines can create a new and radicalised tradition that dispels the notion that the study of Greek and Latin has been dominated by an elite group, which was somehow mysteriously endowed with an accordingly refined sensibility.Less
Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of modern-language translations. This chapter argues that the phenomenon of the arrival of Greek and Roman authors in modern languages needs to be appreciated in full diachronic depth. It calls for a history of translations of the classics and explores the social implications of this. Translation, especially forms of translation linked to theatrical performance, has allowed the classics to be disseminated to an audience that is much wider and more diversified and internally conflictual than is usually assumed. Exploring the history and role of mass market translations, disinterring long forgotten vernacular versions of classical authors, appreciating the importance of performance as access route to the classics, and applauding the hard work and courage of the pioneers in the field could therefore all have significant roles to play in breaking down the sort of prejudices that, in an era of fast-expanding Higher Education, lead to the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans being discarded altogether. For translation history conducted along these lines can create a new and radicalised tradition that dispels the notion that the study of Greek and Latin has been dominated by an elite group, which was somehow mysteriously endowed with an accordingly refined sensibility.
Jean-François Cornu
Carol O’ (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This introductory chapter highlights how film translation history is a new discipline, a coming together of film history and translation history. It provides a definition of film translation as ...
More
This introductory chapter highlights how film translation history is a new discipline, a coming together of film history and translation history. It provides a definition of film translation as encompassing all the conventional modes of film translation of the silent and talking periods. Because of the polysemiotic nature of the film medium, film translation includes related interventions of all kinds, such as editing changes and image and sound manipulation. The chapter also emphasises how this volume is driven by a multidisciplinary and international approach to film translation history, and contributes to scholarship seeking to transnationalise film history. It details the aims and structure of the book, and shows how crucial archival and access issues are to understanding the evolution of film translation, and to raising awareness about the nature of the films we watch and listen to.Less
This introductory chapter highlights how film translation history is a new discipline, a coming together of film history and translation history. It provides a definition of film translation as encompassing all the conventional modes of film translation of the silent and talking periods. Because of the polysemiotic nature of the film medium, film translation includes related interventions of all kinds, such as editing changes and image and sound manipulation. The chapter also emphasises how this volume is driven by a multidisciplinary and international approach to film translation history, and contributes to scholarship seeking to transnationalise film history. It details the aims and structure of the book, and shows how crucial archival and access issues are to understanding the evolution of film translation, and to raising awareness about the nature of the films we watch and listen to.
J. Michael Walton
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199288076
- eISBN:
- 9780191713439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288076.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter focuses on the individual nature of translation of a dramatic piece, especially one aimed at emphasising the performative nature of the original. The history of translating classical ...
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This chapter focuses on the individual nature of translation of a dramatic piece, especially one aimed at emphasising the performative nature of the original. The history of translating classical drama is taken back to Roman times with the Latin adaptations of Greek tragedies and, in particular, the New Comedy of the 4th century BC and beyond. The concerns and priorities of translators of Greek tragedies into English from the 16th to the present day are then addressed, with Euripides' Hecuba featured as a main example. The boom in translating Greek plays during the 19th century is also considered, together with the problems attendant in rendering Aristophanes into English. The overall aim is to stress the importance placed on translating the ‘stage language’ as well as the words, and acknowledging that in a drama the relationship between source and target is complicated by the performance imperative.Less
This chapter focuses on the individual nature of translation of a dramatic piece, especially one aimed at emphasising the performative nature of the original. The history of translating classical drama is taken back to Roman times with the Latin adaptations of Greek tragedies and, in particular, the New Comedy of the 4th century BC and beyond. The concerns and priorities of translators of Greek tragedies into English from the 16th to the present day are then addressed, with Euripides' Hecuba featured as a main example. The boom in translating Greek plays during the 19th century is also considered, together with the problems attendant in rendering Aristophanes into English. The overall aim is to stress the importance placed on translating the ‘stage language’ as well as the words, and acknowledging that in a drama the relationship between source and target is complicated by the performance imperative.
Adrián Fuentes-Luque
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Latin America has played a major role in the history of film translation. Most of the research on film and audiovisual translation to date has focused almost exclusively on Europe, and there is ...
More
Latin America has played a major role in the history of film translation. Most of the research on film and audiovisual translation to date has focused almost exclusively on Europe, and there is hardly any research on Latin American countries. Apart from the intrinsic interest in and need to expand research to other geographic, linguistic, and cultural contexts, in the case of Latin America there is also a double motive: the magnitude of the Spanish-speaking market; and the fact that, for many years, virtually all the translation into Spanish for audiovisual productions was carried out in specific Latin American countries. This chapter explores the development and implementation of audiovisual translation in the Spanish-speaking context, on both sides of the Atlantic, from intertitles to subtitles, multiple-language versions, and dubbing.Less
Latin America has played a major role in the history of film translation. Most of the research on film and audiovisual translation to date has focused almost exclusively on Europe, and there is hardly any research on Latin American countries. Apart from the intrinsic interest in and need to expand research to other geographic, linguistic, and cultural contexts, in the case of Latin America there is also a double motive: the magnitude of the Spanish-speaking market; and the fact that, for many years, virtually all the translation into Spanish for audiovisual productions was carried out in specific Latin American countries. This chapter explores the development and implementation of audiovisual translation in the Spanish-speaking context, on both sides of the Atlantic, from intertitles to subtitles, multiple-language versions, and dubbing.
Rachel Weissbrod
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0013
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter addresses film translation into Hebrew in Mandatory Palestine, from the 1920s to the 1940s, when silent films were gradually replaced by talkies and the need for translation increased. ...
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This chapter addresses film translation into Hebrew in Mandatory Palestine, from the 1920s to the 1940s, when silent films were gradually replaced by talkies and the need for translation increased. It combines ‘macro history’ with ‘micro history’, the study of history through primary sources. Its main primary sources are the autobiographies of two pioneering translators, Ya’akov Davidon and Yerushalayim Segal, who specialised in dubbing and subtitling, respectively. While local production at that time served Zionist ideology, the main function of foreign films was to provide entertainment. Film translators faced two obstacles: official British censorship and the objection on the part of some sectors of Jewish society to the screening of films in foreign languages, considered a threat to Hebrew. Despite these obstacles, translators had the freedom to import, invent, and experiment with new technologies, and to adapt not just the translation to the film, but also the film to the translation.Less
This chapter addresses film translation into Hebrew in Mandatory Palestine, from the 1920s to the 1940s, when silent films were gradually replaced by talkies and the need for translation increased. It combines ‘macro history’ with ‘micro history’, the study of history through primary sources. Its main primary sources are the autobiographies of two pioneering translators, Ya’akov Davidon and Yerushalayim Segal, who specialised in dubbing and subtitling, respectively. While local production at that time served Zionist ideology, the main function of foreign films was to provide entertainment. Film translators faced two obstacles: official British censorship and the objection on the part of some sectors of Jewish society to the screening of films in foreign languages, considered a threat to Hebrew. Despite these obstacles, translators had the freedom to import, invent, and experiment with new technologies, and to adapt not just the translation to the film, but also the film to the translation.
Jean-François Cornu
Carol O’ (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0016
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This concluding chapter goes beyond summing up the main issues addressed in the volume. It emphasises how its methodology was designed to foster an awareness of the significant stakes of film ...
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This concluding chapter goes beyond summing up the main issues addressed in the volume. It emphasises how its methodology was designed to foster an awareness of the significant stakes of film translation history for film history in general. It provides further leads to expand and deepen our knowledge of translated films as essential elements of film history and the film-going experience. A core element of the volume, key archival issues include the accurate identification and cataloguing of prints of translated films: silent films with localised intertitles, dubbed and subtitled versions of talking films. The editors remind the readers how they intend the volume to be a first step in identifying the material aspect of film translation history, and sharing the findings and related excitement with the general public.Less
This concluding chapter goes beyond summing up the main issues addressed in the volume. It emphasises how its methodology was designed to foster an awareness of the significant stakes of film translation history for film history in general. It provides further leads to expand and deepen our knowledge of translated films as essential elements of film history and the film-going experience. A core element of the volume, key archival issues include the accurate identification and cataloguing of prints of translated films: silent films with localised intertitles, dubbed and subtitled versions of talking films. The editors remind the readers how they intend the volume to be a first step in identifying the material aspect of film translation history, and sharing the findings and related excitement with the general public.
Carol O’ (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0015
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter offers the first account of the beginning of subtitling in the United Kingdom and in the United States. The release of foreign-language films with superimposed English titles began in ...
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This chapter offers the first account of the beginning of subtitling in the United Kingdom and in the United States. The release of foreign-language films with superimposed English titles began in both countries in the course of 1931, and became generalised in 1932. The chapter discusses early experiments in titling, including the use of interpolated titles after the fashion of silent films. It also raises a number of methodological problems, including the difficulty of interpretation of press data. This difficulty means that as yet we have only a provisional picture of early subtitling practices in the UK and USA, and for several of these early subtitled versions the nature and extent of the titling is not known. The chapter also discusses the question of survival of the material artefacts of these subtitled versions.Less
This chapter offers the first account of the beginning of subtitling in the United Kingdom and in the United States. The release of foreign-language films with superimposed English titles began in both countries in the course of 1931, and became generalised in 1932. The chapter discusses early experiments in titling, including the use of interpolated titles after the fashion of silent films. It also raises a number of methodological problems, including the difficulty of interpretation of press data. This difficulty means that as yet we have only a provisional picture of early subtitling practices in the UK and USA, and for several of these early subtitled versions the nature and extent of the titling is not known. The chapter also discusses the question of survival of the material artefacts of these subtitled versions.
Jean-François Cornu
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Dubbing as a film translation technique has been largely taken for granted since its origins. Yet such origins are rarely looked into from historical, technical, and artistic perspectives. The study ...
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Dubbing as a film translation technique has been largely taken for granted since its origins. Yet such origins are rarely looked into from historical, technical, and artistic perspectives. The study of early French-dubbed Hollywood and European films has a lot to teach us. This chapter examines aspects of voice-acting, lip synchronisation, dialogue alteration, and sound mixing in nine American, German, and British films. It reveals how the makers of French dubbed versions, in Hollywood and in France, were keen on recreating the soundtrack of foreign films according to their own perception of sound and voice treatment, sometimes disregarding the source material to the point of ‘enriching’ it. This approach has major implications for the reception of these versions, but also for the study of the evolution of sound practices in the early sound period. The historical merits of these versions also have significant archival and exhibition implications.Less
Dubbing as a film translation technique has been largely taken for granted since its origins. Yet such origins are rarely looked into from historical, technical, and artistic perspectives. The study of early French-dubbed Hollywood and European films has a lot to teach us. This chapter examines aspects of voice-acting, lip synchronisation, dialogue alteration, and sound mixing in nine American, German, and British films. It reveals how the makers of French dubbed versions, in Hollywood and in France, were keen on recreating the soundtrack of foreign films according to their own perception of sound and voice treatment, sometimes disregarding the source material to the point of ‘enriching’ it. This approach has major implications for the reception of these versions, but also for the study of the evolution of sound practices in the early sound period. The historical merits of these versions also have significant archival and exhibition implications.
Christopher Natzén
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0014
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The main focus of this chapter is how the Swedish film industry settled on subtitling as its method of film translation in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The early 1930s saw a gradual shift towards ...
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The main focus of this chapter is how the Swedish film industry settled on subtitling as its method of film translation in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The early 1930s saw a gradual shift towards favouring subtitling over dubbing and intertitles. Subtitling was further promoted as new methods for providing the subtitles on the film were developed. A second focus in the chapter is the heightened media sensitivity brought on by dubbing and how this may be related to distributors’ experiments in film translation during the early years of conversion to sound. As the years progressed, a consensus developed in Sweden in favour of subtitling, which was perceived as unobtrusive, since it masked the technical construction of the film medium for those spectators who knew the spoken language in the film.Less
The main focus of this chapter is how the Swedish film industry settled on subtitling as its method of film translation in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The early 1930s saw a gradual shift towards favouring subtitling over dubbing and intertitles. Subtitling was further promoted as new methods for providing the subtitles on the film were developed. A second focus in the chapter is the heightened media sensitivity brought on by dubbing and how this may be related to distributors’ experiments in film translation during the early years of conversion to sound. As the years progressed, a consensus developed in Sweden in favour of subtitling, which was perceived as unobtrusive, since it masked the technical construction of the film medium for those spectators who knew the spoken language in the film.
Naomi Seidman
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226745053
- eISBN:
- 9780226745077
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226745077.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This book reads translation history through the lens of Jewish–Christian difference, which, conversely, it views as an effect of translation. Subjecting translation to a theological-political ...
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This book reads translation history through the lens of Jewish–Christian difference, which, conversely, it views as an effect of translation. Subjecting translation to a theological-political analysis, the author asks how the charged Jewish–Christian relationship—and more particularly the dependence of Christianity on the texts and translations of a rival religion—has haunted the theory and practice of translation in the West. Bringing together central issues in translation studies with episodes in Jewish–Christian history, the book considers a range of texts, from the Bible to Elie Wiesel's Night, delving into such controversies as the accuracy of various Bible translations, the medieval use of converts from Judaism to Christianity as translators, the censorship of anti-Christian references in Jewish texts, and the translation of Holocaust testimony. It ultimately reveals that translation is not a marginal phenomenon but rather a crucial issue for understanding the relations between Jews and Christians, and indeed the development of each religious community.Less
This book reads translation history through the lens of Jewish–Christian difference, which, conversely, it views as an effect of translation. Subjecting translation to a theological-political analysis, the author asks how the charged Jewish–Christian relationship—and more particularly the dependence of Christianity on the texts and translations of a rival religion—has haunted the theory and practice of translation in the West. Bringing together central issues in translation studies with episodes in Jewish–Christian history, the book considers a range of texts, from the Bible to Elie Wiesel's Night, delving into such controversies as the accuracy of various Bible translations, the medieval use of converts from Judaism to Christianity as translators, the censorship of anti-Christian references in Jewish texts, and the translation of Holocaust testimony. It ultimately reveals that translation is not a marginal phenomenon but rather a crucial issue for understanding the relations between Jews and Christians, and indeed the development of each religious community.
Charles O’brien
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0010
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter uses the case of dubbing practices in the early 1930s to consider the possibility that the impact of screen translation techniques on film aesthetics is more significant than has been ...
More
This chapter uses the case of dubbing practices in the early 1930s to consider the possibility that the impact of screen translation techniques on film aesthetics is more significant than has been recognised. The focus is on Hollywood’s unexpected adoption in 1931 of voice dubbing as its principal means of preparing films for the main foreign markets. Hollywood’s reliance on dubbing is contrasted with practices in the German film industry, its main rival for the world film market, where films for export were prepared in foreign-language versions rather than dubbed. Dubbing involved more than voice replacement to affect motion picture style in various ways. Trade press documentation is used to suggest that the dubbed American films of 1931 typically featured less speech; fewer close-ups of speaking actors; more reaction shots in dialogue scenes; more cuts overall; framings and props that concealed rather than displayed the actors’ moving lips; and other stylistic quirks.Less
This chapter uses the case of dubbing practices in the early 1930s to consider the possibility that the impact of screen translation techniques on film aesthetics is more significant than has been recognised. The focus is on Hollywood’s unexpected adoption in 1931 of voice dubbing as its principal means of preparing films for the main foreign markets. Hollywood’s reliance on dubbing is contrasted with practices in the German film industry, its main rival for the world film market, where films for export were prepared in foreign-language versions rather than dubbed. Dubbing involved more than voice replacement to affect motion picture style in various ways. Trade press documentation is used to suggest that the dubbed American films of 1931 typically featured less speech; fewer close-ups of speaking actors; more reaction shots in dialogue scenes; more cuts overall; framings and props that concealed rather than displayed the actors’ moving lips; and other stylistic quirks.
Charles Barr
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Silent films were commonly adapted for foreign markets not simply by translation of intertitles but, when desired, by more radical change, both to the titles and to the whole structure and thrust of ...
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Silent films were commonly adapted for foreign markets not simply by translation of intertitles but, when desired, by more radical change, both to the titles and to the whole structure and thrust of the narrative. The young Soviet Union systematically transformed films from the West in order to make them ideologically acceptable for its own public, as well as to train filmmakers in the craft of editing. The discovery in Moscow of the re-edited version of the 1922 Anglo-American production Three Live Ghosts—on which Alfred Hitchcock worked as title designer—enables an unprecedentedly full case study of this transformation process. Characters and their Great War context are ruthlessly reworked, in the service of a fresh anti-capitalist story. Finally, the same process is traced in reverse, in the sound period, through Hollywood’s own re-editing, for Cold War audiences, of its pro-Soviet wartime feature North Star into an anti-Soviet narrative.Less
Silent films were commonly adapted for foreign markets not simply by translation of intertitles but, when desired, by more radical change, both to the titles and to the whole structure and thrust of the narrative. The young Soviet Union systematically transformed films from the West in order to make them ideologically acceptable for its own public, as well as to train filmmakers in the craft of editing. The discovery in Moscow of the re-edited version of the 1922 Anglo-American production Three Live Ghosts—on which Alfred Hitchcock worked as title designer—enables an unprecedentedly full case study of this transformation process. Characters and their Great War context are ruthlessly reworked, in the service of a fresh anti-capitalist story. Finally, the same process is traced in reverse, in the sound period, through Hollywood’s own re-editing, for Cold War audiences, of its pro-Soviet wartime feature North Star into an anti-Soviet narrative.
Carla Mereu Keating
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter sheds new light on the strategies that Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Fox developed in the early 1930s to target the Italian-speaking market. It documents how the Italian ...
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This chapter sheds new light on the strategies that Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Fox developed in the early 1930s to target the Italian-speaking market. It documents how the Italian government, local film traders, and the press responded to the majors’ Italian-language production during a critical turning point for the national film industry. The chapter draws on a range of historical records (diplomatic, censorship and administrative state documents, film prints, press reviews, and other publicity materials) from Italian and North-American archives. The findings show that the majors’ experiments with Italian dubbing and versioning were not always successful and elicited ambivalent responses in Italy; the findings also demonstrate the gradual emergence of dubbing as the most commercially viable solution for both the US majors and the Italian establishment. Incongruities in the archival records, and the scarcity of surviving film prints, pose interpretative problems and call for further empirical research in the field.Less
This chapter sheds new light on the strategies that Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Fox developed in the early 1930s to target the Italian-speaking market. It documents how the Italian government, local film traders, and the press responded to the majors’ Italian-language production during a critical turning point for the national film industry. The chapter draws on a range of historical records (diplomatic, censorship and administrative state documents, film prints, press reviews, and other publicity materials) from Italian and North-American archives. The findings show that the majors’ experiments with Italian dubbing and versioning were not always successful and elicited ambivalent responses in Italy; the findings also demonstrate the gradual emergence of dubbing as the most commercially viable solution for both the US majors and the Italian establishment. Incongruities in the archival records, and the scarcity of surviving film prints, pose interpretative problems and call for further empirical research in the field.
Martin Barnier
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0012
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The international film trade changed dramatically with the generalisation of sound films. It became more difficult for Hollywood to export English-speaking films than during the silent era. One ...
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The international film trade changed dramatically with the generalisation of sound films. It became more difficult for Hollywood to export English-speaking films than during the silent era. One solution was multiple-language films, which helped French stars to become even more popular in France. The Hollywood studios quickly opted for dubbing as the best solution. The first two Paramount films dubbed into French were Derelict (as Désemparé) and Morocco (as Cœurs brûlés) in 1931. How were these dubbed versions received by critics and the trade press in France? Popular film magazines did not object to dubbed versions so much, while cinephile magazines considered they were rushed jobs. This chapter studies the evolution of the reception of dubbed films in France in 1931–3, using evidence from the trade and popular press. It traces the beginning of the opposition between original-language versions for upmarket movie theatres, and dubbed versions aimed at popular neighbourhoods.Less
The international film trade changed dramatically with the generalisation of sound films. It became more difficult for Hollywood to export English-speaking films than during the silent era. One solution was multiple-language films, which helped French stars to become even more popular in France. The Hollywood studios quickly opted for dubbing as the best solution. The first two Paramount films dubbed into French were Derelict (as Désemparé) and Morocco (as Cœurs brûlés) in 1931. How were these dubbed versions received by critics and the trade press in France? Popular film magazines did not object to dubbed versions so much, while cinephile magazines considered they were rushed jobs. This chapter studies the evolution of the reception of dubbed films in France in 1931–3, using evidence from the trade and popular press. It traces the beginning of the opposition between original-language versions for upmarket movie theatres, and dubbed versions aimed at popular neighbourhoods.
Jonathan Evans
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474400176
- eISBN:
- 9781474426909
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474400176.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This chapter introduces the book. It offers an overview of Davis’s career as a writer and as a translator before putting forward the main argument of the book that translation is central to ...
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This chapter introduces the book. It offers an overview of Davis’s career as a writer and as a translator before putting forward the main argument of the book that translation is central to understanding Davis’s work. The chapter then discusses the role of translation in a writer’s œuvre, arguing, based on a literature review, that there are three main trends: 1) translation that has no relation to the rest of their work, 2) translation as influential on a writer and 3) translation in dialogue with their other writing. In Davis’s case, there are examples of translations which have no relation to her other writing, but the book focuses on those where a dialogue can be perceived. The chapter ends by summarising the upcoming chapters.Less
This chapter introduces the book. It offers an overview of Davis’s career as a writer and as a translator before putting forward the main argument of the book that translation is central to understanding Davis’s work. The chapter then discusses the role of translation in a writer’s œuvre, arguing, based on a literature review, that there are three main trends: 1) translation that has no relation to the rest of their work, 2) translation as influential on a writer and 3) translation in dialogue with their other writing. In Davis’s case, there are examples of translations which have no relation to her other writing, but the book focuses on those where a dialogue can be perceived. The chapter ends by summarising the upcoming chapters.
Jason Scully
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198803584
- eISBN:
- 9780191842009
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198803584.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The first chapter demonstrates that even though Isaac quotes Evagrius throughout much of his writing, Isaac does not adopt Evagrius’s eschatological framework. In order to reach this conclusion, this ...
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The first chapter demonstrates that even though Isaac quotes Evagrius throughout much of his writing, Isaac does not adopt Evagrius’s eschatological framework. In order to reach this conclusion, this chapter conducts a detailed comparison of two Syriac translations of the Gnostic Chapters, which is the Evagrian text that Isaac quotes most often. While the sixth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters includes a detailed eschatological consideration of the human soul in the future world, the fifth-century Syriac version is void of any distinctive eschatological framework. Since Isaac only used the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, he cannot have derived his eschatological framework from Evagrius. Rather, following Babai the Great, who established a framework for interpreting the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, Isaac interprets Evagrius’s Gnostic Chapters as a work describing the journey of asceticism.Less
The first chapter demonstrates that even though Isaac quotes Evagrius throughout much of his writing, Isaac does not adopt Evagrius’s eschatological framework. In order to reach this conclusion, this chapter conducts a detailed comparison of two Syriac translations of the Gnostic Chapters, which is the Evagrian text that Isaac quotes most often. While the sixth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters includes a detailed eschatological consideration of the human soul in the future world, the fifth-century Syriac version is void of any distinctive eschatological framework. Since Isaac only used the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, he cannot have derived his eschatological framework from Evagrius. Rather, following Babai the Great, who established a framework for interpreting the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, Isaac interprets Evagrius’s Gnostic Chapters as a work describing the journey of asceticism.
Susanna Braund and Zara Martirosova Torlone (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198810810
- eISBN:
- 9780191847950
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198810810.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This is the only volume of its kind that addresses the long and complicated history of translations of Virgil, whose poems were at the centre of the educational curriculum and the wider culture of ...
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This is the only volume of its kind that addresses the long and complicated history of translations of Virgil, whose poems were at the centre of the educational curriculum and the wider culture of Europe until the nineteenth century. While this collection of chapters covers numerous European traditions (English, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish), the volume also extends its focus beyond European translations to translations into Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Slovenian, Turkish, and the young world language, Esperanto. Classic translations such as those of Dryden, Du Bellay, Leopardi, Valéry, and Voß are considered alongside more surprising names, including Pasolini and Wordsworth, and recent interventions, for example by Heaney and Veyne. Each essay provides theoretical background for the case studies considered. In the Introduction the editors draw attention to some overarching issues. The volume closes with contributions by two active translators, Alessandro Fo in Italian and Josephine Balmer in English. This volume is dedicated to the study of translations of Virgil as a national and transnational cultural phenomenon and is an invitation to further study of this important topic.Less
This is the only volume of its kind that addresses the long and complicated history of translations of Virgil, whose poems were at the centre of the educational curriculum and the wider culture of Europe until the nineteenth century. While this collection of chapters covers numerous European traditions (English, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish), the volume also extends its focus beyond European translations to translations into Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Slovenian, Turkish, and the young world language, Esperanto. Classic translations such as those of Dryden, Du Bellay, Leopardi, Valéry, and Voß are considered alongside more surprising names, including Pasolini and Wordsworth, and recent interventions, for example by Heaney and Veyne. Each essay provides theoretical background for the case studies considered. In the Introduction the editors draw attention to some overarching issues. The volume closes with contributions by two active translators, Alessandro Fo in Italian and Josephine Balmer in English. This volume is dedicated to the study of translations of Virgil as a national and transnational cultural phenomenon and is an invitation to further study of this important topic.
Ástráður Eysteinsson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198754824
- eISBN:
- 9780191819841
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198754824.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies, European Literature
Milton’s presence in Icelandic letters is largely limited to Jón Þorláksson’s translation of Paradise Lost, the first books of which were published in 1794–6. This translation is arguably one of the ...
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Milton’s presence in Icelandic letters is largely limited to Jón Þorláksson’s translation of Paradise Lost, the first books of which were published in 1794–6. This translation is arguably one of the stepping stones in Icelandic literary history, emerging at a critical crossing point of Icelandic literary heritage, religious literacy, and a developing secular culture born of the Enlightenment and quickly heading towards Romanticism. This chapter analyses the historical and cultural context of Þorláksson’s enterprise; why he translated Milton through intermediary translations (Danish and German); why and with what results he opted for the Icelandic fornyrðislag metre, apparently so different from Milton’s blank verse; and how he actively delved into the language and material of Norse myths and medieval Icelandic literature in coming to terms with Milton’s classical and biblical discourse—in a translational dialogue that proved vital for Þorláksson’s successors, the Romantic poets who are often seen as rejuvenating Icelandic literature.Less
Milton’s presence in Icelandic letters is largely limited to Jón Þorláksson’s translation of Paradise Lost, the first books of which were published in 1794–6. This translation is arguably one of the stepping stones in Icelandic literary history, emerging at a critical crossing point of Icelandic literary heritage, religious literacy, and a developing secular culture born of the Enlightenment and quickly heading towards Romanticism. This chapter analyses the historical and cultural context of Þorláksson’s enterprise; why he translated Milton through intermediary translations (Danish and German); why and with what results he opted for the Icelandic fornyrðislag metre, apparently so different from Milton’s blank verse; and how he actively delved into the language and material of Norse myths and medieval Icelandic literature in coming to terms with Milton’s classical and biblical discourse—in a translational dialogue that proved vital for Þorláksson’s successors, the Romantic poets who are often seen as rejuvenating Icelandic literature.
Warren Boutcher
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198739661
- eISBN:
- 9780191831126
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739661.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from ...
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This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from within Montaigne’s own milieu, and on the ways in which his book made him a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his editor Marie de Gournay and his promoter Justus Lipsius. Volume 2 focuses on the reader-writers across Europe who used the Essais to make their own works, from corrected editions and translations in print, to life-writing and personal records in manuscript. The two volumes work together to offer a new picture of the book’s significance in literary and intellectual history. The school of Montaigne potentially included everyone in early modern Europe with occasion and means to read and write for themselves and for their friends and family, unconstrained by an official function or scholastic institution. The Essais were shaped by the post-Reformation battle to regulate the educated individual’s judgement in reading and acting upon the two books bequeathed by God to man. The book of scriptures and the book of nature were becoming more accessible through print and manuscript cultures. But at the same time that access was being mediated more intensively by teachers such as clerics and humanists, by censors and institutions, by learned authors of past and present, and by commentaries and glosses upon those authors. Montaigne enfranchised the unofficial reader-writer with liberties of judgement offered and taken in the specific historical conditions of his era.Less
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from within Montaigne’s own milieu, and on the ways in which his book made him a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his editor Marie de Gournay and his promoter Justus Lipsius. Volume 2 focuses on the reader-writers across Europe who used the Essais to make their own works, from corrected editions and translations in print, to life-writing and personal records in manuscript. The two volumes work together to offer a new picture of the book’s significance in literary and intellectual history. The school of Montaigne potentially included everyone in early modern Europe with occasion and means to read and write for themselves and for their friends and family, unconstrained by an official function or scholastic institution. The Essais were shaped by the post-Reformation battle to regulate the educated individual’s judgement in reading and acting upon the two books bequeathed by God to man. The book of scriptures and the book of nature were becoming more accessible through print and manuscript cultures. But at the same time that access was being mediated more intensively by teachers such as clerics and humanists, by censors and institutions, by learned authors of past and present, and by commentaries and glosses upon those authors. Montaigne enfranchised the unofficial reader-writer with liberties of judgement offered and taken in the specific historical conditions of his era.
