Speaking Tongues: Voice Dubbing in the Cinema as Cultural Ventriloquism

Abstract

A comparison of the primary methods of film translation - voice dubbing & subtitling - demonstrates practices of cultural ventriloquism in film translation. It is argued that voice dubbing jeopardizes the authenticity & originality of motion pictures by appropriating & creating a new text; specifically, the national & cultural identities of characters in voice-dubbed films are reconstructed through film translation. Although subtitling preserves the original film & facilitates understanding, many national audiences repudiate subtitled films as a form of entertainment. The ventriloquizing function of voice dubbing permits the film translator to promote source culture ideology, maintain target culture autonomy, or produce an entirely new genre - as evidenced by a German comedic reappropriation of the US TV series Starsky & Hutch. Moreover, practices of & preferences for voice dubbing & subtitling must be perceived in conjunction with each nation's position within the global economic power structure. Film dubbing may provide economic foundations for the development of small language communities & augment international film exchange, thus creating markets in Anglophone nations no longer dominated by Hollywood productions. 13 References. J. W. Parker