Reviewed by Szabolcs Mészáros and Soňa Hodáková
Mgr. Lucia Paulínyová works as an assistant at the Department of British and American Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University in Bratislava. In her research she focuses on audiovisual translation, dubbing translation, dubbing editing, the didactics of audiovisual translation, and subtitling.
Her publication Z papiera na obraz: Proces tvorby audiovizuálneho prekladu [From the Paper to the Screen: The Audiovisual Translation Creation Process] represents a pioneering work in the field of audiovisual translation in Slovakia as it is one of the few monographies on the subject. This book explores both theory and practice in the respective field.
The first, theoretical part of the work provides an exhaustive overview of the sometimes academically neglected field of audiovisual translation. Audiovisual translation as a field of study raised the attention of both theoreticians and professionals, with an increasing number of articles and studies being published on the subject, yet there is still a lack of monographies that would provide comprehensive information about the various offshoots of audiovisual translation.
The theoretical part tries to clarify and to reformulate definitions in the field of audiovisual translation which are no longer plausible, while taking into consideration the work that has already been done in the field. By comparing different definitions, the author points out to certain missing characteristics, thus providing us with new definitions that are reflecting on the deficiencies of the previous ones.
As mentioned in her work, audiovisual translation as a process is the product of collective effort requiring both artistic and technical capabilities, rather than an individual task. A huge advantage which is evident throughout the work is the intertwining of theory and practice as the author is not only well-versed in her academic research in the field but also derives from her own experience as a translator and editor of scripts for Slovak broadcasting media. Therefore, she involves specific examples derived from her practice in the theoretical part of the work.
After introducing us to the basic concepts of audiovisual translation, the author clarifies its placement in translation studies as she provides us with clear comparisons with the other types of translation. The focus is then put to dubbing, exploring its definitions, characteristics, types of dubbing, its development in Slovakia and how the creation of dubbing works, specifically naming and defining professions involved in the process up to the point of outlining their particular tasks. A short glossary of audiovisual terminology is also presented.
The main questions explored in the research part of the work are the changes made in the translated script compared to the final Slovak dubbed versions, quantitatively exploring the number of changes made and their originators while qualitatively focusing on the types of changes, the way they got carried out and the reason why. The research was conducted on the three episodes of the third series of the TV series Sherlock (2014).
The quantitative research uses basic statistical tools to find out the proportion of work being done on the script: how many of the translated text remains in the final script, how many gets changed by the editor and then by the other creators of the final dubbed version respectively. The author’s findings prove the importance of the work done by the translator, as almost the half of the translated text remains and appears in the final script unchanged. Thus, translators should be wary of the impact their translation has on the final product and shouldn’t rely on the other participants of the dubbing creation process to correct their mistakes.
The qualitative research searches for the reason why the editor changes the translation and tries to categorize these changes. This research shows that the translator is often bound to the original script too much and thus, this creates an interference of the source language into the target language. Reflecting on this interference, the research found out that the changes made by the script editor often contribute to the authenticity of the language used (on the level of general stylistics and pragmatics, not only the phonetic qualities required to produce convincingly dubbed media). However, when trying to understand some of the translator’s dubious solutions, the editor often introduced changes which were of a negative nature, creating wrong meaning. These findings yet again prove that the translator should be most conscientious when producing the translated script and should be free from the lingual structures the original imposes so as to be able to create an authentically sounding translation.
The work greatly contributes to the development of the field of audiovisual translation in Slovakia. The theoretical part intertwined with various examples is a useful tool not only to university students taking audiovisual translation courses but to the people who would like to gain theoretical insight into the creation of audiovisual translations as well. The commentaries made by the author and three literary editors on the script translation and editing offer valuable insights not only in the field of audiovisual translation and dubbing in general, but to the intricacies of the translation process as such. Therefore, the didactic value of the work should not be omitted. Even though the research is limited to three episodes of a TV series, prospective consecutive research done in a similar way will certainly contribute to a deeper understanding of the professional roles in the field of audiovisual media.