Decision‐making in subtitling

Abstract

The dubbing of films in Italy was first adopted because Fascist censorship (1929–1946) forbade the use of foreign languages in all films screened in Italy. This has had far‐reaching effects on the way cinema is offered to the Italian public: subtitling and other means of language transfer are not accepted at all, regardless of genre and mode of presentation. This article argues for the introduction of subtitling in an Italian context, at least in those genres in which the source language expression is vital, such as drama. The article discusses some strategies available for the subtitling of films into Italian; it divides these strategies according to the media‐related constraints linked to subtitling, and gives examples taken from a British film subtitled into Italian by the author of this article. I am not a professional subtitler, but a linguist, and I have approached the practice of subtitling with a background in the theory of translation and subtitling. Therefore this article, resulting from the combination of practice and reflection on the theory, offers an insight into the process rather than just giving possible reasons for the choices of others, as happens in most case studies of dubbing and subtitling.

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