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Abstract:
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Translating cultural elements is a problem whose solution still remains unclear. Cultural elements refer not only to cultural references, but also dialects, since they have a close relationship with the cultural, geographic and historic context of the text. The translation of the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a perfect example of it. It is a dialect closely linked to the history and the culture of black people in the United States. This paper aims to analyse and assess the way in which the AAVE and the cultural references were translated into Spanish in Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, and its subsequent film adaptation. Using specific examples from both documents and comparing the written translation, the dubbing and the subtitling, this paper observes the different techniques a translator can use when it comes to adapting cultural elements. The results of the study show that, while the translation of the novel tries to maintain and adapt the AAVE to show the differences in speech between characters, the dubbing and the subtitling of the film tend to neutralise the dialect, which can be a problem for the recipients of the translated document, since they will not obtain the same information as the recipients of the original one. With regards to the cultural references, this paper observes that the translator uses different strategies, always with the goal of achieving a complete understanding of the text and its context. Ultimately, this paper will shed light on to the many different techniques that the translators have applied to The Help and the ways in which they have tried to approach the text to the Spanish speaking reader. |
