Chapter 12 | Mediality and Audiovisual Translation

 

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Publication date: 13 September 2018
Copyright date 2019
Hardback ISBN: 9781138859524
E-book ISBN 9781315717166
You can order this volume on the Routledge website

 

 

 

 

 

This chapter aims to help promote a greater awareness of mediality in audiovisual translation studies and to demonstrate its rich potential as a productive angle of enquiry with which to proceed within this field. It starts with a discussion of Marshall McLuhan’s influential work on media as environments and the ways in which these shape our experience of the world. The explanatory power of his philosophy of technology is then illustrated with a pertinent example drawn from Karen Littau’s more recent work on media-induced transformations in reading, writing and translation practices. The following section deals with the criticisms that have been made with respect to this line of thought and the importance of placing (media) tool use in its social context is emphasized. Finally, the second half of this chapter (Mediality and Audiovisual Translation) demonstrates how these ideas can and have been applied specifically with regards to the study of audiovisual translation, tracing the changes in the technological environment over time as a means of shedding light on the gradual shift towards a ‘democratization’ of this activity.

 

 

Henry Jones is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester’s Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies. His research interests include online translation communities, media theory and corpus-based translation studies. He is currently working as part of a multi-disciplinary team on the Genealogies of Knowledge project.

 

 

The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation Studies provides an authoritative and straightforward overview of the field through thirty-two specially commissioned chapters written by leading scholars in the field.

This state-of-the-art reference work is divided in four sections. The first part focuses on established and emerging audiovisual translation modalities, explores the changing contexts in which they have been and continue to be used, and examine how cultural and technological changes are directing their future trajectories. The second part explores the interface between audiovisual translation and a range of theoretical models that have proved particularly productive in steering research in audiovisual translation studies. Some of these models are associated with disciplines that have long intersected with audiovisual translation, while others are drawn from areas of knowledge that are only now beginning to make their presence felt in the audiovisual translation literature. The third part surveys a range of methodological approaches supporting traditional and innovative ways of interrogating audiovisual translation data. The final part addresses a range of themes pertaining to the place of audiovisual translation in society: these include the institutionalization, academization and technologization of audiovisual translation, as well as its role as a force for social change, both within and outside the industry. This Handbook gives audiovisual translation studies the voice it needs to make its presence felt within the Humanities research landscape.

 

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