Table Of ContentB EN J A M I N S
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T Reception
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Studies and
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Audiovisual
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Translation
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L edited by
Elena Di Giovanni
A Yves Gambier
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L I B R A R Y
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Reception Studies and Audiovisual Translation
Benjamins Translation Library (BTL)
issn 0929-7316
The Benjamins Translation Library (BTL) aims to stimulate research and training in
Translation & Interpreting Studies – taken very broadly to encompass the many different
forms and manifestations of translational phenomena, among them cultural translation,
localization, adaptation, literary translation, specialized translation, audiovisual
translation, audio-description, transcreation, transediting, conference interpreting,
and interpreting in community settings in the spoken and signed modalities.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
www.benjamins.com/catalog/btl
General Editor Honorary Editors
Roberto A. Valdeón Yves Gambier
University of Oviedo University of Turku
& Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
Associate Editor
Gideon Toury†
Franz Pöchhacker Tel Aviv University
University of Vienna
Advisory Board
Cecilia Alvstad Christopher D. Mellinger
University of Oslo University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Georges L. Bastin Jan Pedersen
University of Montreal Stockholm University
Dirk Delabastita Luc van Doorslaer
University of Namur University of Tartu & KU Leuven
Daniel Gile África Vidal
Université Paris 3 - Sorbonne Nouvelle University of Salamanca
Krisztina Károly Meifang Zhang
Eötvös Lorand University University of Macau
Volume 141
Reception Studies and Audiovisual Translation
Edited by Elena Di Giovanni and Yves Gambier
Reception Studies
and Audiovisual Translation
Edited by
Elena Di Giovanni
University of Macerata
Yves Gambier
University of Turku & Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/btl.141
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress.
isbn 978 90 272 0093 8 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6393 3 (e-book)
© 2018 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
Table of contents
Introduction vii
Elena Di Giovanni and Yves Gambier
Part I. Defining reception studies
Media audiences and reception studies 3
Annette Hill
Film, cinema and reception studies: Revisiting research
on audience’s filmic and cinematic experiences 21
Daniel Biltereyst and Philippe Meers
Translation studies, audiovisual translation and reception 43
Yves Gambier
Part II. Methodology in reception studies and audiovisual translation
Multi-method research: Reception in context 69
Tiina Tuominen
Triangulation of online and offline measures of processing
and reception in AVT 91
Jan-Louis Kruger and Stephen Doherty
Discourse analysis, pragmatics, multimodal analysis 111
Roberto A. Valdeón
Historical approaches to AVT reception: Methods, issues and perspectives 133
Serenella Zanotti
Part III. AVT modalities and reception studies
Dubbing, perception and reception 159
Elena Di Giovanni
Reception studies in audiovisual translation – interlingual subtitling 179
Kristijan Nikolić
vi Reception Studies and Audiovisual Translation
Reception studies in live and pre-recorded subtitles for the deaf
and hard of hearing 199
Pablo Romero-Fresco
Audio description and reception-centred research 225
Elena Di Giovanni
Part IV. Hybrid media and new audiences
Media interpreting: From user expectations to audience comprehension 253
Franz Pöchhacker
Reception studies in game localisation: Taking stock 277
Carme Mangiron
On the reception of mobile content: New challenges
in audiovisual translation research 297
Alberto Fernández-Costales
New audiences, international distribution, and translation 321
David Orrego-Carmona
Bio-notes 343
Filmography 349
Subject index 351
Introduction
Elena Di Giovanni and Yves Gambier
Audiences in a changing audiovisual landscape
Audiences have always held a prominent position in debates – theoretical, method-
ological, pragmatic – related to texts and their enjoyment. This has been especially
true of texts conceived for specific readership, such as drama plays, children’s books,
advertising material, tourist brochures and, more recently, audiovisual products.
From issues of comprehension to appreciation, critique and taste, and from the age
of Cicero – a Roman politician and lawyer and a famous orator and prose stylist
(106 BC–43 BC), to the days of social media and viral content, audiences have been
truly pivotal. However, studies on audience reception in relation to translation,
especially within the realm of media, have only recently started to develop on a
regular basis. Audiences are, in themselves, indeed difficult to define, let alone
identify: as all chapters in this volume show, audiences can be seen as many different
entities and observed from several standpoints. More precisely, media audiences
often cannot be seen at all, as consumption of media texts very frequently happens
in private settings that can hardly be handled for research purposes.
The definition and the study of audiences are thus influenced by several fac-
tors, including modes of consumption, fast-changing technology 1 (soliciting more
and more our attention), ever-shifting viewing habits (associated with cultural
attitudes, expectations, values, assumptions, empathy), small to huge audience
composition, etc.
Changes in modes of consumption and technology have led, over slightly more
than a decade, to an unforeseen surge in agency and interactivity on the part of
audiences. Having generally been passive spectators, whose reaction to, and re-
ception of, media content often remained on a small-scale level, today viewers can
express their opinions on social media in a matter of seconds, and thus determine
the success or failure of a film, TV product, web series, etc. Moreover, the advent
of on-demand television and online streaming services, for instance, has radically
1. The technology impacts as well the different settings where we can watch AV products: cin-
ema theatre, computer, TV, DVD, mobile device/smart phone, theatre, museum, etc.
doi 10.1075/btl.141.01gio
© 2018 John Benjamins Publishing Company
viii Elena Di Giovanni and Yves Gambier
changed the mode and time of media consumption and has steadily placed agency
and creativity in the hands of users. Today, media content can be created, shared,
modified, customized and, of course, it can also be translated. Individuals or entire
communities of fans have increasingly engaged in volunteer forms of audiovisual
translation which have also changed the face of audiovisual translation (AVT) prac-
tice, for example by fostering the use of online, collective platforms for translation
production. Volunteer, fan translation has also affected the market in different de-
grees across the five continents, occasionally coming to compete with professional
services.
Thus, the empowerment of end users, in all its forms, has shaken and stirred
the very notion of audience, with an increasing difficulty in marking the boundary
between media and translation producers and consumers.
If we look specifically at media accessibility for the sensory impaired, an in-
creased attention on the part of the scholarly community worldwide, along with
the frequent involvement of the end users (audiences) in the making, reviewing
and disseminating of accessible media texts, has led to more widespread awareness,
increased dissemination and the opening up of access services to all, towards true
inclusion.
A dynamic research field: Audiovisual translation (AVT)
For a better understanding of the place and the challenges related to AVT, let us
draw a map of the development of AVT over the last three decades. Reception here
falls under “accessibility”, assumed here in its broad meaning, i.e. aiming at all kinds
of audiences and not only people who experience disabilities. Accessibility allows
anybody to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in
a specific context of use, and allows communication to go beyond any social, cog-
nitive, age, gender divide and mental, sensory, physical impairment.
Few explanations are now needed:
1. “Products” refers to publications focusing on “problems” (humour, swear-
words, terms of address, discourse markers, language register, cultural items,
etc.) and/or “constraints” (impact of the oral code, genres, space and time con-
straints, etc.)
2. “Process” includes studies on strategies, norms, conventions, the translator’s
voice, technical constraints, from script writing to dialogue, interplay visual/
sound/verbal, etc.
Introduction ix
AVT
Language policy Descriptive studies Accessibility Applied research
(According to modes
intra-/inter lingual)
Reception Fan amateurs
AVT Multilingualism
Perception
History
Censorship Broadcasting Quality
Distribution
Language of limited
(TV, cinema, DVD,
diffusion
Net, mobile devices)
Language minority
Products (1) Process (2) Technology Training Effects Status
(4) Profile
Multimedia translation (3) Basic Continuing
(websites, videogames) Training Education
3. “Technology” in AVT has changed and is changing the AV landscape: many
research projects deal now with automation and its impacts on productivity
and quality, on working conditions, fees, ethics, copyrights, etc. but also on
digitization and transformations in production, distribution, broadcasting, etc.
4. Under “effects”, we refer to studies on reading skills, reading habits, language
learning, stereotypes, etc.
The four different subfields in the figure imply certain types of research approaches
and/or tools. Thus Language policy can offer historical, political, economic, com-
mercial perspectives while Descriptive studies means linguistic, pragmatic, narra-
tological, cognitive, multimodal, imagological perspectives and also case studies.
With Accessibility, we have e.a. socio-cultural, ethnographic perspectives. And
Applied Research means technical, professional, legal, educational perspectives.
Now, if we consider the practice of audiovisual translation, the past decade has
brought about incredible changes besides those mentioned above: the total digi-
talization of working materials, to mention but one, has led to tighter deadlines,
increased precision, new competences. New modes of consumption for translated
media, along with end users’ empowerment as has been outlined above, have also
led to variations in the distribution of AVT techniques worldwide, for example by
