Subtitling and Dubbing of Idiomatic Expressions in the American TV Series WandaVision

Abstract

The research aimed to find out the translation strategies applied in the subtitling and the dubbing of idiomatic expressions in the television series WandaVision (2021). Moreover, the research also aimed to reveal whether the subtitling and the dubbing of the idiomatic expressions are source language-oriented or target languageoriented. The descriptive qualitative approach was applied in the research. The data were analyzed using the taxonomy for rendering extralinguistic cultural references in subtitling proposed by Pedersen. The taxonomy was used to analyze the data since it was specifically designed for subtitling and audiovisual translation. The results show that there are various strategies applied in subtitling and dubbing. In subtitling, the translation strategies applied are substitution, direct translation, generalization, and the combination of substitution and omission. The translation strategies applied in the subtitling are related to spatial and temporal constraints. As a comparison, the translation strategies applied in dubbing are substitution, direct translation, generalization, and the combination of substitution and specification. The strategies are applied based on the consideration that spoken language features should be included in the dubbing. Based on the translation strategies applied, it can be concluded that both the subtitling and the dubbing are target language-oriented.