Cover not available
Article published In:
Audiovisual translation in context: Granting access to digital mediascapes
Edited by Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Alessandra Rizzo and Cinzia Giacinta Spinzi
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 9:3] 2023
► pp. 419–449

Authorial (audio) description

Creativity in the transfer of CSRs in Squid Game

| Università di Palermo
| Università di Bergamo
The unprecedented growth of audiovisual translation practices in the creative industries has boosted the role of creativity which has taken centre stage and become the emblem of global cultural policies. The study addresses the role of creativity in the digital space of Netflix as a means of cross-cultural mediation and communication, and as a multidimensional tool in audio description (AD), in order to provide the end-users (the blind and visually impaired audiences) of digital audiovisual products with participatory and engaging forms of access to the audiovisual ‘planet’. The aim is to investigate whether and how creativity is used to transmit culture-specific references (CSRs) from a translation perspective within a highly discussed TV series streamed on Netflix. To do so, the rendering of the most significant CSRs in the Korean Netflix series Squid Game (SG) as transferred into the English and Italian ADs will be examined.
Keywords: creativity, culture-specific references, authorial intent, audio description, Squid Game
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.AD within intercultural mediation
  • 3.AVT Creativity. The case of AD
  • 4.Methodology: CSRs and tactics
    • 4.1CSRs
    • 4.2Tactics
  • 5.Analysis of CSRs through translation tactics
    • 5.1Location, food, and drinks
    • 5.2Games and characters
  • 6.Results and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 9 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00121.riz
References (58)
References
ADLAB guidelines. (n.d.). “Pictures Painted in Words. ADLAB Audio Description Guidelines.” Accessed June 30, 2023. [URL]
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 1993. “Thick Translation.” Callaloo 16 (4): 808–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
BBC iPlayer. Call the Midwife. Episode 1. Accessed June 30, 2023. [URL]
Bittner, Hansjörg. 2015. “Audio Description Guidelines. A Comparison.” Accessed June 20, 2023. [URL]
Bosseaux, Charlotte. 2001. “A Study of the Translator’s Voice and Style in the French Translations of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves .” CTIS Occasional Papers 11: 55–75.Google Scholar
Braun, Sabine. 2008. “Audio Description Research: State of the Art and Beyond.” Translation Studies in the New Millennium 61:14–30.Google Scholar
Cambridge Dictionary Online. (n.d.). [URL]
Chaume, Frederic. 2018. “Is audiovisual Translation Putting the Concept of Translation up against the Ropes?” Journal of Specialised Translation 301: 84–104.Google Scholar
Chen, Ya-Mei. 2011. “The Translator’s Subjectivity and Its Constraints in News Transediting: A Perspective of Reception Aesthetics.” Meta 561: 119–144. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chiaro, Delia. 2008. “Issues of Quality in Screen Translation: Problems and Solutions.” In Between Text and Image: Updating Research in Screen Translation, ed. by Delia Chiaro, Christine Hiess, and Chiara Bucaria, 183–193. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chmiel, Agnieszka, and Iwona Mazur. 2014. Audiodeskrypcja [Audio Description]. Poznań: Wydział Anglistyki UAM.Google Scholar
Cho, Jinhyun. 2021. “Squid Game and the ‘Untranslatable’: The Debate around Subtitles Explained.” Accessed June 30, 2023. [URL]
Díaz Cintas, Jorge. 2018. “‘Subtitling’s a Carnival’: New Practices in Cyberspace.” Journal of Specialised Translation 201: 127–149.Google Scholar
Díaz Cintas, Jorge, and Aline Remael. 2021. Subtitling. Concepts and Practices. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dong-hyuk, Hwang. director. Squid Game. TV series, 9 Episodes (Netflix). Siren Pictures Inc. 2021.Google Scholar
Dwyer, Tessa. 2017. Speaking in Subtitles. Revaluing Screen Translation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Groskop, Viv. 2021. “Lost in Translation? The One-inch Truth about Netflix’s Subtitle Problem.” The Guardian. Accessed June 30, 2023. [URL]
Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason. 1997. The Translator as Communicator. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hewson, Lance. 2016. “Creativity in Translator Training: Between the Possible, the Improbable and the (Apparently) Impossible.” Linguaculture 21: 9–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holst, June Lyngbak Fogh. 2010. “Creativity in Translation – A Study of Various Source and Target Texts.” Bachelor’s thesis. Institut for Sprog og Erhvervskommunikation: Aarhus School of Business. Accessed June 30, 2023. [URL]
Jankowska, Anna, and Agnieszka Szarkowska. 2016. “Strategie opisu kulturemów waudiodeskrypcji.” [Strategies for audio describing culture]. Między Oryginałem a Przekładem 311: 136–152.Google Scholar
Jankowska, Anna, Michał Milc, and Louise Fryer. 2017. “Translating Audio Description Scripts… into English.” Skase. Journal of Translation and Interpretation 10 (2): 2–16.Google Scholar
Jankowska, Anna. 2022. “AD and Culture-specific Elements.” In The Routledge Handbook of Audio Description, ed. by Christopher Taylor, and Elisa Perego, 107–126. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Katan, David. 2008. “Culture.” In The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, and Gabriela Saldanha, 70–73. Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar
Katan, David, and Mustafa Taibi. 2022. Translating Cultures. An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kruger, Jan-Louis. 2010. “Audio narration: Re-narrativising film.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 18 (3): 231–249. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, Hye-Kyung. 2022. “Rethinking Creativity: Creative industries, AI and Everyday Creativity.” Media, Culture & Society 44 (3): 601–612. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leppihalme, Ritva. 1994. Culture Bumps: On the Translation of Allusions. Helsinki: University of Helsinki, Department of English.Google Scholar
Luque Colmenero, Maria Olalla, and Silvia Soler Gallego. 2020. “Metaphor as Creativity in Audio Descriptive Tours for Art Museums: From Description to Practice.” Journal of Audiovisual Translation 3 (2): 64–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McClarty, Rebecca. 2012. “Towards a Multidisciplinary Approach in Creative Subtitling.” Monti, 41:133–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maszerowska, Anna, and Carme Mangiron. 2014. “Strategies for Dealing with Cultural References in Audio Description.” In Audio Description: New perspectives illustrated, ed. by Anna Maszerowska, Anna Matamala, and Pilar Orero, 159–78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matamala, Anna, and Naila Rami. 2009. “Analisis comparativo de la audiodescripción española y alemana de ‘Good-bye Lenin.’” Hermēneus. Revista de Traducción e Interpretación 111: 1–13.Google Scholar
Mayer Youngmi. 2021. Accessed June 30, 2023. [URL]
Namkung, Victoria. 2021. “Translator, Experts Weigh in on ‘Squid Game’ Subtitle Debate.” News. Culture Matters. Accessed June 30, 2023. [URL]
Netflix. (n.d.). “Creative Excellence in Dubbing – Guidelines.” Accessed June 30, 2023. [URL]
Pedersen, Jan. 2005. “How is culture rendered in subtitles?” MuTra – Challenges of Multidimensional Translation: Conference Proceedings: 1–18.Google Scholar
Pérez-González, Luis. 2012. “Co-creational Subtitling in the Digital Media: Transformative and Authorial Practices.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 16 (1): 3–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pięta, Hanna, Laura Ivaska, and Yves Gambier. 2022. “Introduction. What Can Research on Indirect Translation do for Translation Studies?” Target Online 34 (3): 349–369. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ramos Caro, Marina. 2016. “Testing Audio Narration: The Emotional Impact of Language in Audio Description.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 241: 1–29.Google Scholar
Ramos, Marina, and Ana Mária Rojo. 2020. “Analysing the AD process: Creativity, Accuracy and Experience.” Journal of Specialised Translation 331: 212–232.Google Scholar
Remael, Aline, and Gert Vercauteren. 2010. “The Translation of Recorded Audio Description from English into Dutch.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 181: 155–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rizzo, A. 2018. “Transcreating the Myth: “Voiceless Voiced” Migrants in the Queens of Syria Project.” In Translation or Transcreation? Discourses, Texts and Visuals, ed. by Cinzia Spinzi, Alessandra Rizzo, and Marianna Lya Zummo, 150–179. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Romero-Fresco, Pablo. 2021. “Creative Media Accessibility: Placing the Focus Back on the Individual.” In Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Access to Media, Learning and Assistive Environments, ed. by Margherita Antona, and Constantine Stephanidis, 291–307. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Romero-Fresco, Pablo, and Frederic Chaume. 2022. “Creativity in Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility.” Journal of Audiovisual Translation 381: 75–101.Google Scholar
Rudvin, Mette. 2006. “The Cultural Turn in Community Interpreting. A Brief Analysis of Epistemological Developments in Community Interpreting Literature in the Light of Paradigm Changes in the Humanities.” In Taking Stock: Research and Methodology in Community Interpreting ed. by Erik Hertog, and Bart van der Veer, special issue of Linguistica Antverpiensia 51: 21–41.Google Scholar
Sanz-Moreno, Raquel. 2017. “The audio Describer as a Cultural Mediator.” RESLA, Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada 30 (2): 538–558. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schjoldager, Anne Gram, Henrik Gottlieb, and Ida Klitgård. 2008. Understanding Translation. Århus: Academica.Google Scholar
Schleiermacher, Friedrich. 1938/1992. “On the Different Methods of Translating.” In Theories of Translation. An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida, ed. by Rainer Schulte, and John Biguenet, 36–54. London: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Spinzi, Cinzia. 2020. “(Re)creating actuality in environmental documentaries. The case of Before the Flood .” Bridge. Trends and Traditions in Translation and Interpreting Studies 1 (2): 107–131.Google Scholar
Spiteri Miggiani, Giselle. 2019. Dialogue Writing for Dubbing. An Insider’s Perspective. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Szarkowska, Agnieszka. 2013. “Auteur Description: From the Director’s Creative Vision to Audio Description.” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 107 (5): 383–387. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Szarkowska, Agnieszka, and Jankowska, Anna. 2015. “Audio Describing Foreign Films.” Journal of Specialised Translation 231: 243–269.Google Scholar
Udo, John Patrick, and Deborah Fels. 2009. “’Suit the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action’: An Unconventional Approach to Describing Shakespeare’s Hamlet .” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 1031: 178–183. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vercauteren, Gert. 2007. “Towards a European Guideline for Audio Description.” In Media for All -Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description, and Sign Language, ed. by Pilar Orero, Aline Remael, and Jorge Díaz Cintas, 139–149. Amsterdam: Rodopi. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2021. “Insights from Mental Model Theory and Cognitive Narratology as a Tool for Content Selection in Audio Description.” Journal of Audiovisual Translation 4 (3): 6–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walczak, Agnieszka, and Louise Fryer. 2017. “Creative Description: The Impact of Audio Description Style on Presence in Visually Impaired Audiences”. British Journal of Visual Impairment 35 (1): 6–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zabalbeascoa, Patrick. “Declining dichotomies in Translation Studies. Creativity and other unresolved issues.” Paper presented at the conference Translators as Authors 2: Creativity in Media Localisation, University of Rome ‘Sapienza’, May 10th, 2023.