Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Bc. Eva Barnová Culture in Film Subtitling from Czech into English: Kolya and The Elementary School Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Renata Kamenická, Ph.D. 2010 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to express many thanks to my supervisor Mgr. Renata Kamenická, Ph.D. for her valuable advice and kind support. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. The author – Zdeněk Svěrák 2 2.1.1. Zdeněk Svěrák – biography 2 2.1.2. Zdeněk Svěrák and his style of writing 5 2.1.3. Zdeněk Svěrák and his sense of humour 6 3. Zdeněk Svěrák’s films and the voice of American public 7 4. Subtitling in the light of theory 11 4.1. Definition and general characteristics of subtitling 11 4.2. Advantages and disadvantages of subtitling 13 4.3. Constraints relating to subtitling 15 5. Kolya and The Elementary School 18 6. Translation of Culture 20 6.1. Definition of culture 20 6.2. Culture specifics 23 6.2.1. Definition of culture specifics 23 6.2.2. Classification of culture specifics 24 6.2.3. Methods of translation of culture specifics 28 7. Analysis 31 7.1. Social culture 31 7.2. Historical and political concepts 43 7.3. Material culture 51 7.4. Language 56 7.5. Icons 64 7.6. Arts 65 7.7. Beliefs and values 67 7.8. Infrastructure 69 7.9. Geographical landmarks 70 7.10. Environment 71 8. Questionnaires 72 9. Conclusion 76 10. Czech Résumé 78 11. English Résumé 80 12. Works Cited 82 13. Appendix A PERSONAL NOTE: My primary reason for choosing these films is more personal and emotional. Zdeněk Svěrák used to be a Czech teacher. His humour is very intelligent and the stories are really resourceful. I have loved his films since I was a child because my mother was a Czech teacher too and she loves such intelligent humour. The Elementary School was one of the first films I saw in the cinema and I fell for it immediately. Later, when my mum became ill, I always watched these films to remember my childhood and the lovely carefree moments we spent together. 1. INTRODUCTION The objective of my thesis is to show specific features of translation of culture by analysing subtitles to films Kolya and The Elementary School by father and son Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák‟s. Despite its attractiveness, audiovisual translation has been a very neglected branch of translation studies until recently and for that reason I am going to provide readers with some information about theory of subtitling as well. It is not a coincidence that I have chosen these particular films. If I am supposed to analyse translation of Czech culture in subtitling, it seems to me that there are no better films than those written by Zdeněk Svěrák. Zdeněk Svěrák is a very popular Czech screenwriter, actor, musician, humorist and playwright. However, many people maybe do not know that he was also a teacher of the Czech language. The Czech language plays an important part in Svěrák‟s films, which makes it more difficult for translators to succeed in translating all the puns and metaphors into English that is in comparison with Czech generally considered to be less colourful and complex. Moreover Svěrák‟s films lay an immense emphasis on historical events, especially those of the Communist era in former Czechoslovakia, and they do it in a sarcastic, satirical, humorous way. My thesis is virtually divided into two major parts – theoretical and practical. The former focuses on the author and it depicts Zdeněk Svěrák‟s life, his style of writing and his humour (which is necessary to familiarize with to analyse his films properly). It also deals with the theory of subtitling that will help readers understand why it is so difficult to transfer the oral Czech into written English especially when the films are so culturally-oriented and the subtitler‟s work subjected to so many restrictions. Last but not least this part of the thesis concetrates on translation of culture and categorization of culture specifics. The latter part focuses on the analysis of films as 1 such and it also deals with questionnaires which were filled in by several non-Czechs and they contribute to the final shape of this thesis. As it is unfortunately a common case in the branch of Translation Studies, information relating to the translators is minimal. The same applies to translators of Kolya and The Elementary School. For that reason I could not devote an individual chapter to them. The only information I have obtained on the Internet Movie Database is that the subtitles to Kolya were made by Jesswyn Jones. There are also three other translators there (Barbora Hlaváčová, Kristian Bily and J.B. Sayer), however, their particular involvement in the translation of the film is not clarified anywhere. As far as The Elementary School is concerned, the situation is even worse. The only thing I managed to find out is that the subtitles were made by a company called Hoge, however, any particular name of a translator or a subtitler was not unfortunately stated in the credits. For the purpose of the analysis I used the subtitles included on the particular DVDs. 2 THE AUTHOR – ZDENĚK SVĚRÁK 2.1.1. ZDENĚK SVĚRÁK - BIOGRAPHY “Love is a disease - but healthy.”1 Zdeněk Svěrák Zdeněk Svěrák is a playwright, novelist, actor, lyricist and most importantly a film and television screenwriter. He contributes to various magazines, writes stories and fairy tales for children and he also acts in plays in a small theatre named after an unjustly ignored Czech fictional hero, Jára Cimrman. “The theatre of Jára Cimrman“ was founded by Zdeněk Svěrák and a few colleagues of his in 1966 and since then he still 1 Láska je nemoc, ale zdravá. (Flamendr.cz) 2 has been not only a leading author but one of the main characters actively associated with the theatre as well. (Tatínek) The theatre is dedicated to the research of life and death of Jára Cimrman1 and its plays and Zdeněk Svěrák‟s humour in general is very popular among Czech people. Zdeněk Svěrák was born in Prague on 28th March 1936. As a child he loved the Czech language and above all he adored writing essays. “I was really happy when I stood in front of the whole class and read my stories out loud. When I managed to make the class laugh, I was in raptures,”2 he remembers. (Fenomén) His first poem was called “45 minutes in goose-pimples”3 and it depicted the horror of a Maths class. (Na co jezdí) When he was seven, his parents moved to a small house next to the cemetery in Kopidlno village. His father wanted him to become an electrician and so continue the family tradition but Zdeněk Svěrák was attracted to the teaching career. (Fenomén) In 1958 he graduated from Charles University of Prague where he studied the Czech language and literature at the Pedagogical Faculty and where he also met his future wife with whom he has made an inseparable couple for almost 50 years. Their motto was “Anywhere but together”4 and so they both started their teaching experience at an elementary school in Měcholupy near Ţatec. (Fenomén) Zdeněk Svěrák was a beloved teacher whose credo was “School as a play”. He always endeavoured to make his students laugh and he rewarded those who worked hard with chocolate. He spent a lot of time with them even outside school and he addressed students “friends”, which became his nickname later - he was a friend in front of the blackboard. (Na co jezdí) 1 Jára Cimrman is a fictive Czech genius invented by Zdeněk Svěrák and Ladislav Smoljak. 2 Dělalo mi hrozně dobře, kdyţ jsem mohl veřejně číst svůj sloh. Kdyţ se mi podařilo rozesmát celou třídu, byl jsem na vrcholu blaha. (Fenomén) 3 45 minut v husí kůţi (Na co jezdí) 4 Kamkoliv, ale spolu (Fenomén) 3 However, after three years of teaching he got feeling that his work swallowed him up and that he did not have time for his writing and for that reason he left the school and started working as an editor in an editorial office of The Czechoslovak Radio station. (Roberts) With his colleagues they started broadcasting a new program called The Non-Alcoholic Wine Cellar by the Spider. It was aired once a month on the Praha station and consisted of a mock “live broadcast” from a fictional Prague watering hole (...) Serious commentary held the listeners of the “Spider” in the illusion that they were following the happenings in a real music club which was in many respects unusual but not so much as to defy probability. (Roberts) Zdeněk Svěrák‟s film acting debut came in 1968 when he appeared as the lawyer in Crime in the Music Hall directed by Jiří Menzel. His distinctive comic talent found place in supporting roles in plenty of Czech comedies, in which he was usually involved as a screenwriter as well. Zdeněk Svěrák made himself visible primarily owing to the scripts for Czech films Joachim, Put it in the Machine, Mareček, Pass Me the Pen, A Cottage by the Woods or Fire-ball that he co-wrote with his long-lasting friend and colleague Ladislav Smoljak (a film and theater director, actor and screenwriter).