For an Abusive Subtitling (Abé Mark Normes) 6
Abé Mark Normes, ‘For an Abusive Subtitling,’ Film Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Spring, 1999), pp. 17-34
article on jstor (restricted access)
I’ve thought a lot about translation and about subtitling in particular. I haven’t read much, though, and this article probably wasn’t the best place to start. It struck me as fairly pretentious, and it’s certainly infused in literary theory to a degree that doesn’t really interest me. It does, however, provide some interesting historical tidbits about the development of subtitling. Notably missing are any discussion of the matter of subtitling opera and the general non-existence of subtitling for live play performances, two related phenomena that help flesh out how our English-speaking society in general tackles translation, subtitling (or supertitling), and differing ideas of purism. I aim to revisit this topic, but I’ll probably do so next time I post an article I’ve read on subtitling.