Giulia Magazzù "Gabriele d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the Identity of Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

ABSTRACT

The dialogue found in the Montalbano saga (an Italian television series produced and broadcast by RAI since 1999, based on the detective novels of ) is rich in register variation, from the “macaronic language” of Catarella, with its linguistic jokes and grammatical errors, to the use of the local dialect (adopted by peasants and lower classes), to Montalbano’s mixed interlanguage used with a phatic function, to Livia’s perfectly sounding Italian. The code-switching and code-mixing used by Camilleri represent a great challenge for the translator who has to make specific choices in order to render the translation intelligible to the target audience. Starting from Taylor’s (2000, p.153) definition of subtitles as “conveyors of meaning and guardians of culture,” the aim of this paper is to analyze the subtitling strategies adopted to translate into English the dialect and regionalisms in two episodes of “Inspector Montalbano” broadcast on BBC4 in 2008 and 2012, focusing on the factors of transculturality and extratextuality (where the former refers to how familiar the source and target cultures are and the latter has to do with whether the concept to be translated exists outside the source culture) that affect the choices of a translator when it comes to the transposition of a spoken, sociolinguistically marked dialogue into a subtitle that should convey the meaning of the source text.

KEY WORDS

AVT, dialect, culture-bound language

1. Introduction

An audiovisual text is a multilayered semiotic construct comprising several signifying codes (mostly written, oral and visual) that operate simultaneously in the production of meaning. The typology of a film, its genre, the way it is organized and the meaning of all its elements result in a semantic structure that needs to be deconstructed as a whole by the spectator.

TranslatoLogica: A Journal of Translation, Language, and Literature, 2 (2018), p. 111-125

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

The translator's task thus is to master the functioning of all these different codes and to be able to cope with the incidence of both linguistic and non-linguistic signs within a translation (Chaume, 2004, p. 16-17). The peculiar nature of this complex text has deserved a specific branch of the already-multifaceted field of Translation Studies. Screen Translation, Audiovisual Translationand Multimedia Translation are all labels for a discipline that, unlike literary translation, has to exclude many of the most common translation aids (explanatory footnotes, glossaries, asterisks or asides), which may help the viewers understand what is going on the screen (Ascheid, 1997, p. 34). When foreign language television programmes are to be made available to a domestic market, two main contemporary adaptation methods are favoured: voice dubbing or a written dialogue summary in the form of subtitles (Ascheid, 1997, p. 32). Following Jakobson’s tripartition, subtitling is the only type of translation that can enter all three categories of translation: endolinguistic, interlinguistic and intersemiotic, shifting from the oral to the written mode. Therefore, subtitling has every right to be regarded as a very complex form of translation that has unsurprisingly received increasing attention from scholars, researchers and practitioners over the past 20 years. The scope of research on audiovisual texts encompasses uncovering multifaceted and complex procedures required to conduct audiovisual translation and the idea of working under the burden of technical time and space constraints1. Audiovisual translation is regarded as a multidisciplinary field that owes a lot to Descriptive Translation Studies with a target-oriented approach, Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics, Conversation Analysis, among others. Subtitles in particular stand out as a text representing the “in-between,” a written code that tries to retain and transmit elements of the spoken mode. The core question is well expressed by Díaz Cintas and Remael when they underline that “subtitling, being a hybrid language form with its own limitations, is therefore faced with a formidable challenge; how does one translate the sophistication of spoken language variants into a regimented written form”(Díaz Cintas &Remael, 2007, p.185)? Moving from this question, the aim of the paper is to focus on the subtitling strategies used to translate dialect and culture-bound language in the English

1 In order to reduce the impact of subtitling on screen it is common practice to present a maximum of two lines of 35 characters each. The length of a subtitle is also influenced by what it is supposed to be the average audience reading speed. An average viewer can read a two-line subtitle in six seconds. Therefore it is possible to work out a table of correspondence between duration of dialogue and number of spaces (Díaz Cintas & Remael, 2007, p. 69-99). 112

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano version of “Il Commissario Montalbano,”2 an extremely successful Italian television series based on the novels by Andrea Camilleri (see section 2). Pedersen (2005) adopts the general umbrella term of extralinguistic culture-bound references (ECR) and underlines that what affects the translator’s choice for strategies are two main factors: transculturality and extratextuality. The former refers to how familiar the source and target cultures are and the latter has to do with whether the concept to be translated exists outside the source culture. Dialects are not simply a matter of lexicon, they “are characterized by non-standard grammar, specific lexical features and a distinctive accent”(Díaz Cintas & Remael, 2007, p.191). When it comes to translating dialect, both factors of transculturality and extratextuality can be problematic. Furthermore, it is quite straightforward that translating one dialect by choosing another one in the target language will render translation unintelligible to the majority of the target audience. On the other hand, in the globalised world, the current trend seems to be pushing towards localization and a widespread use of language variation in audio-visual products. Taylor’s definition of subtitles as the “conveyors of meaning and guardians of culture” (Taylor, 2000, p.153), emphasizes the power of words through which the audience can get a general understanding of the content without necessarily missing out on extralinguistic level thereof.

2. The Montalbano Saga and its language

The literary and media phenomenon of Il Commissario Montalbanohas made a significant cultural impact in Italy. The success of Andrea Camilleri’s novels is global, with 25 titles of the Montalbano series published in Italy, of which 16 have now been translated into over 30 languages. The TV adaptation by RAI, the national public broadcasting company in Italy, began in 1999, and Montalbano was soon extensively discussed on the Internet and other media, such as the press, radio, and even comic books. In Italy, the series has become the nation’s favorite, while also receiving consistently high critical praise. The TV series were subtitled in 16 countries. In the UK, the TV series were first aired under the title Inspector Montalbano in 2008, and all 11 seasons and 30 episodes of the original RAI productions had been broadcast by September 2017. A lot of the popularity of both novels and TV series rests on the main protagonist, Salvo Montalbano, a fractious Sicilian detective who works in the police force of Vigata, an imaginary Sicilian town, lives a single life, is a gourmet and a long-

2 Translated into English as Inspector Montalbano. 113

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano distance swimmer who owns a wonderful beach house. He is often confronted with criminal puzzles that necessitate his wits and stamina. His exceptional ability of dealing with bureaucratic and political matters allow him to to close the cases quickly and diligently despite constantly being under pressure. Salvo Montalbano’s speech, in line with Camilleri’s own literary jargon, is a mixture of standard Italian and Sicilian dialect, heavily imbued with ironic remarks and tones.

2.1. Camilleri’s language

Those who come across any of Camilleri’s books are struck by the peculiarity of his language, an idiolect which merges Italian and the Sicilian dialect of his childhood. In her article “La lingua de ‘Il re di Girgenti’” (p. 37), the Canadian linguist Jana Vizmuller-Zocco (2004: 87-98), describes the language used in the Inspector Montalbano novel as characterised by three main mechanisms, which can be applied to the detective novels as well:

1) Code switching or functional alternation of codes when the communicative situation and/or the participants change; 2) code mixing or juxtaposition of two different language systems; 3) Lexical hybridisms or italianisation of the regional dialect.This is an intermediate level between Standard Italian and Sicilian. It can be considered as an “italianised Sicilian” created by apposing Italian morphemes onto Sicilian lexis.

This analysis of the linguistic phenomena can be carried out perfectly by making use of Vizmuller-Zocco’s list3 of the major linguistic variations interwoven in Montalbano’s novels:

1) Formal, bureaucratic Italian: spoken usually by government officials or politicians, it has a negative connotation; it is very pompous and people who speak it are not appreciated by detective Montalbano who despises them, in fact they are always parodied. 2) Standard Italian: Standard Italian is used in passages dealing with current affairs, in socially relevant comments made by the narrator or in some formal dialogues between characters of a higher social status or between characters who are not Sicilian, or for instance, even between Montalbano and his girlfriend, Livia, who comes from Bocadasse near Genoa.

3 Source: http://www.vigata.org/dialetto_camilleri/dialetto_camilleri.shtml(17/01/18) 114

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

3) Regional Italian: Camilleri’s texts contain phonetic and morphosyntactic traits typical for the Regional Italian of Sicily. A typical phonetic trait of regional Italian in the texts is the apocopation of proper names and nouns in general: Salvù, Dottò, Gelsomì, Catarè, Montalbà. 4) Sicilian dialect: “pure”4dialect is normally used in dialogues taking place between locals, in direct speech or in proverbs. It contains expressions specifically from , where Camilleri was born in 1925. It is easy to detect these local words because they contain the consonant cluster /ddr/ very common in the province of : picciriddru (kid), ciriveddro (brain), a pampineddra (slightly open), addritta (standing, upright), gaddrina (hen), addrumare (to light).

An important notion is the so-called sicilianità of the Montalbano novels and TV series, i.e.the marked presence of local cultural, literary and socio-political references and the systematic foregrounding of the local dialect, which constitutes one of the major reasons for Montalbano’s success both within Italy and internationally. It also forms the identity of the main character, crucially through his peculiar use of the local dialect. The presence and variations of dialect are suggestive of authorial intentions and narrative agendas, as much as of translation and adaptation strategies. The translation of dialect is important insofar as it affects individual character perceptions too. Thus, another matter this paper discusses is the use of dialect as part of sicilianità. in the TV series, and the extent to which this dialect is retained in the subtitles.

3. From the Novels to the TV Series

Much research has been carried out on the characterological changes in the protagonist made between the novels and the television series. These changes were influenced by audience expectations, economic constraints, and other extratextual factors. Marrone described how Camilleri created a different character for the television series: “Montalbano as a television character is visibly much younger and fitter than his literary counterpart, the places where he lives and works are more beautiful and dramatic, and the people around him are stereotypically more Sicilian” (Marrone, 2004, p.4).

4 Vizmuller-Zocco defined it as “pure” because it is not mixed with Italian words and expressions. 115

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

The differences between the literary and the TV versions of Montalbano point to the hypothesis that there is no stable set of features that can be ascribed to the main character; instead, there are translations and interpretations in which various forces and tendencies are at play, including the tendency to domesticate or foreignise the original text. These two notions, borrowed from Lawrence Venuti’s work on translation strategies, define the extent to which the traces of the translation process remain visible in the translated text (Venuti, 1995). Domestication is the strategy of making text closely conform to the culture of the language it is being translated into, which may involve the loss of information from the source text. Foreignisation is the strategy of retaining information from the source text, and involves deliberately breaking the conventions of the target language to preserve its meaning. If this distinction is applied at the level of television adaptation, then choosing between these two strategies would mean, among other things, deciding whether to highlight the originally literary character of Montalbano, whether to resist the tendency to follow TV detective series stereotypes about on-screen action, sex appeal of the protagonist, attractiveness or the settings. For Venuti, it is ethically preferable to follow a foreignizing attitude in translating (Venuti, 1995). For our purposes, however, the emphasis is not on evaluation but on the identification of the strategy followed. To that effect, we examined whether the use of dialect as a narrative device is evident in the adaptation of some episodes of Inspector Montalbano. As the following example suggests, it is suppressed to a considerable degree, indicating an effort to domesticate the audiovisual text, that is to make it culturally and linguistically easier to process. Dialectal expressions are reduced, often toned down and simplified in the dialogue, so as not to sound too exotic to an Italian audience. The Italian viewer is not required to make as much effort as in reading the novels but can clearly recognize the Sicilian intonation. In spite of considerable parts of Sicilian dialect being eliminated, Italian audience can clearly understand the difference between the linguistic variety Montalbano uses with his non-Sicilian girlfriend Livia (standard Italian), with the long-time mafia boss Tano (stronger dialect and intonation), and with his boss, the police commissioner (light dialect and intonation). As in the book series, dialect is often used when conveying emotions. The linguistic changes brought about by the medium shift could imply an intention to boost comprehensibility at the expense of emotional depth, as we can see in the passage of the

116

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano death of Tano, where the dialectal terms and their translation are highlighted in italics (see Table 1):

Table 1 From “The Terracotta Dog” (page 75 of the novel) Novel Italian TV script Tano: Mi scanto. Tano: Aio, aiopaura. Montalbano: Non t’affruntari, non ti Montalbano: Non tivergognare a dirlo. vergognare a dirlo. Magari per questo tu Tuttiabbiamopaura a questopasso. sei un omo. Tutti ci scateremo a questo passo. English translation Literal translation of the script -I’m spooked -I’m...I’m scared. -You needn’t be ashamed to say so. It’s -Don’t be ashamed to say so. We’re all scared one more thing that makes you a man. at this stage. We’ll all be scared when our time comes.

The omission of most dialectal elements in the TV version of Il cane di terracottais important, not only because this is an emotional story from the second book of the series, in which Camilleri’s effort at building Montalbano’s identity is palpable. In addition to emotional depth, the dialect in this scene suggests Montalbano’s connection at a human level even with the Mafia, which Tano represents, based on belonging to the same linguistic community. There are, however, further issues that need to be taken into account here. Firstly, the loss of emotional complexity during the linguistic transfer is at least partly compensated for through acting and cinematography. In the scene discussed, emotions are conveyed through close-ups, slow pace of dialogues, pitch and intonation, as well as by pauses and silence. Secondly, even though the use of authentic Sicilian dialect in the series is less frequent than in the book, Montalbano still uses regional Italian with the appropriate accent to convey intimacy and emotion.

117

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

4. The English Subtitles

As is well known, translation choices made in the process of subtitling are dictated not only by linguistic and cultural criteria, but also by time and space constraints, that is, limitations that have to do with the length of each subtitle line, and with the time that the subtitle may stay visible on screen (Díaz Cintas & Remael 2007). Another limitation is the semiotic context in which the subtitle occurs. The semantics, the aesthetics, and the position of each subtitle have to respect the image on screen, while subtitles must also follow the visual rhythm of the cinematography and the editing. These limitations create a specific set of criteria outside of which it is not possible to evaluate interlingual subtitling strategies (Ivarsson and Carroll, 1998). In this section, I discuss the translation of Sicilian dialect in the English DVD subtitles. Subtitles regularly employ the strategy of compensation when dealing with marked language. In other words, a particular utterance is translated using a more strongly connotated expression in comparison to the original version in order to compensate for the loss of connotative tone elsewhere (Díaz Cintas & Remael, 2007). Sometimes, necessary omissions of some parts are compensated by the introduction of idiomatic expressions in some other parts of the target text where they can be inserted more appropriately. In agreement with Moon (1999), who affirms that fixed expressions and idioms are employed to give a pragmatic dimension to discourse, fostering interactions and textual organization, the use of fixed marked language enhances the effort towards functional equivalence or, in other words, a search for correspondence of usage in the two languages. As a matter of fact in the following example, from the episode called August Flame, the fairly standard lines of the original dialogue are converted in rather strongly connotated language. Here, Inspector Lozupone is discussing with Montalbano what strategy to adopt with a criminal:

Table 2 From August Flame Italian Script Back Translation English Subtitles Lozupone:In conclusione, Lozupone:In conclusion, Lozupone:Spitaleri will get Spitaleri si salva e tu e chi ti Spitaleri is free and you and off scot free…And you’ll get ha dato il documento ve lo the person who gave you the your ass kicked. pigliate in quel posto. document will get shafted

118

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

Here in the first line, “sisalva/is free” is translated with an idiomatic expression and the utterance “ve la pigliate in quelposto” is translated with the use of an idiom, which is more explicit compared to the source dialogue. On the other hand, in the following example (see Table 3), the meaning of the subtitle is toned down in comparison to the original utterance where the dialect words are inserted in the formality of standard Italian grammar enhancing the comic effect. In carrying out his murder investigation, Montalbano is talking to Dr. Pasquano, the coroner, about a corpse. They usually fight because Pasquano is a lazy person and doesn’t like working. . In the subtitle the dialect word “gabbasisi” is translated in its correct but plain equivalent:

Table 3 From August Flame Italian Script Back Translation English Subtitles Montalbano: Oh, dottor Montalbano:Oh, Montalbano: Pasquano, it’s Pasquano, Montalbano sono. dr.Pasquano, Montalbano Montalbano. Pasquano: Mi prudevano i here. Pasquano: My balls were gabbasisi. Sentivo proprio la Pasquano: My balls were itching, I needed someone to mancanza di qualcuno che itching. I definitely missed bust them for me. me li venisse a scassare. someone that came here to Montalbano: You see, I knew Montalbano: E ha visto? Io break them. that and here I am. ho capito e ho provveduto! Montalbano: See? I understood and I did it!

Part of the comic effect is retained in the contrast between the triviality of the dialogue and the formality of the situation. Pasquano employs the word „gabbasisi”, very common in the entire series, to convey a comic effect, even if the two characters are in a morgue, a place that usually is not associated with humour . In the next example, strong dialect is present in the novel, but it is not identical with the dialect used in the TV script. In the English subtitles, dialect has been completely eliminated, and the dialogue has been translated using standard English. Only the swearing is retained, though in a milder form, as presented in table 4:

119

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

Table 4 From „The Terracotta Dog” Italian Script Back Translation English Subtitles Montalbano: Ma chi è? Montalbano: But who is it? Montalbano: Who is it? Stranger: Chi è? È la tò Stranger: Who is it? It’s your Stranger: It’s your death, morte. Nun te la passi liscia death. You’re not going to that’s who.You won’t get curnuto d’un curnuto. Ma chi get away with it, you away with this, you pinsavi di pigghiare pu’ culu asshole. But who did you bastard.Did you think that co’ tutto sto tiatro che hai think you were getting by little show you and your fatto col tuo amico Tanu? E the ass with all this theatre mate Tano put on could fool pe’ questo la pagherai m’hai what you set up with your us?You’re going to pay for caputo? friend Tano? And for this you that. will pay, did you understand?

In this scene, Montalbano receives an anonymous phone call from an unidentified member of the Mafia who threatens to kill him. Verbal confrontation and anger are expressed through the use of swearing and dialect. In the English subtitles, swearing is retained for the most part, but the dialect has disappeared, leaving only some traces of marked language. There is a visible effort in the subtitles to convey roughness of expression and threat, for example in the repetition “It’s your death, that’s who,” and in translating “curnuto” to “bastard.” If we compare the information that each target audience receives from this sequence, it is possible to argue that the Italian viewer of the TV program will be fully aware of the seriousness of the threats, the caller's intentions to insult the detective and of the special linguistic connection between him and Montalbano, immediately assuming that the caller is a member of the Mafia. On the other hand, the viewer of the TV episode who relies on the English subtitles will not associate the language with the Sicilian dialect and culture and will not necessarily recognize the caller as a Mafioso. This viewer will also have to surmise that this is an emotionally charged scene based on swearing and traces of marked language in the subtitles, and, perhaps above all, based on the intonation and pitch of the telephone conversation.

120

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

In the following dialogue between Montalbano and his deputy, Mimì Augello, the text of the subtitles has been significantly condensed compared to the source language script due to time and space constraints. The subtitles bear no trace of Sicilian dialect and non-marked English language is used to translate the dialogue, while in most cases the swearing disappears. In this passage, the writers use the technique of intradiagetic explanation of dialect, as we can detect from the word “scantato” which is followed by the common Italian expression “ti sei messopausa”, translated as “you got scared”.

Table 5 From „The Terracotta Dog” Italian Script Back Translation English Subtitles Mimì: Salvo, ma dove ti sei Mimì: Salvo, where have Mimì: Salvo are you going to andato a ficcare buttana di you been hiding, for fuck’s tell me where the hell you’ve una buttana si può sapere? sake, if I may know? been hiding? Montalbano: Eh. Ma che ti Montalbano: What’s got Montalbano: Mimì, what’s piglia? into you? going into you? Mimì: E che mi piglia, mi Mimì: What’s got into me, I Mimì: I got scared. sono scantato, Salvù. got scared, Salvo. Montalbano: Scared? Of Montalbano: Pecché ti sei Montalbano: Why were you what? messo paura? afraid?

Here Mimì, Montalbano’s deputy, is worried because he couldn’t find Montalbano, but finally he manages to reach him and confesses his frustration. This is a moment where Mimì expresses fear, so the dialect is prominent. Mimì uses the Sicilian variation “Salvù” (instead of Salvo, Montalbano’s forename) to invoke friendship beyond the professional context, and perhaps also to express affection, as he fears for Montalbano’s life. Augello then uses the Sicilian expression “Mi sonoscantato” (“I was scared”), which Montalbano explains in standard Italian for the benefit of the Italian viewer. The English reader of the DVD subtitles is not aware of these subtle transactions.

121

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

5. Conclusions In an article about the standardization of regionalisms in literary translation, Leppihalme (2000, p. 264) stated that some of the main functions of regionalisms include creating a sociocultural context, individualizing the characters, and adding humor. The same can be claimed about the use of dialect in the Montalbano saga. Camilleri seems to agree with the use of dialect as an individualization device when he states that “dialect, or dialects to be more precise, are the true essence of the characters” (quoted in McRae, 2011, p. 73). In this article, I have focused on the role of dialect in defining the true essence or authenticity of the Montalbano series, however, based on a comparison of the presence and importance of dialect in the transformations of Montalbano (the original dialogues and subtitles), it seems that there is no single true essence of the character. When we examine Montalbano as a network of literary and media translations through the prism of dialect, different characterological profiles appear for the cultural product as a whole and for the main character in particular. If we consider dialect as one of the implicit cues that convey character information by inference (Culpeper, 2001), then this analysis points to the following thoughts: First of all, toning down the dialect in the TV series overall (and even more so in thespecific cases of the subtitles analysed) results in a reduction and simplification of the verbally conveyed emotions. If the way in which emotions are expressed plays a specific part in managing the detective puzzles, then downplaying the complexity and intensity of emotions in the adaptations could result in gaps in both understanding the storyline and appreciating its density and refinement. Another effect of toning down the dialect is the de-emphasizing of the sicilianità. Being more than a natural or architectural background, in the novels Sicily constitutes a marked cultural and anthropological context that provides narrative and aesthetic clues to the reader. Avoiding implicit references to it through the use of dialect may result in Sicily becoming an exotic décor of the action, during which known stereotypes about the food, the Mafia, etc., are being confirmed. Montalbano’s identity is at risk of being impacted accordingly. The above remarks can only be considered as a contribution to a broader comparative examination of contextual, intertextual, visual, and televisual parameters that we have

122

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano allowed for here. While I suggest that the reduction in dialectual features affects the characterization of Montalbano in concrete ways, I also indicate that this reduction may be compensated for through other means. For example, in assessing the effect of adaptation and translation choices, the following elements should be taken into account: accent, intonation, politeness strategies, facial expression, posture, kinesis, clothing and any multimodal feature that can be found in the series. Mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing also play an important role in compensating for the loss of emotion and local reference in the processes of translation and adaptation. Although the discourse of translation evaluation if often articulated in terms of loss and compensation, examining translation networks, such as the polysemiotic network of Montalbano, cannot be reduced to such simplifications. It is therefore not the purpose of this paper to conclude with a judgment, however tentative, with regard to the quality of the TV series or of the English subtitles. What the examples seem to indicate, however, is that Montalbano’s multiple transformations do not contribute to his unique character profile. These transformations do not necessarily point to a linear progression or to a central narrative management of the character that can be attributed to a single authorial source. On the contrary, we witness a series of agents, including the subtitlers and those involved in the TV adaptation of the novel, who follow different norms and conventions and have different priorities and commitments. As far as the translation of dialect in subtitles is concerned, it has proved to be a rather complicated matter and the lack of consistency and regulating norms does not make things easier. I would like to indicate that the strategies of condensation and omission are much more frequent when the presence of dialect is limited to a few words and scattered sentences. When a given dialect dominates the original dialogue, the explicitation strategy is most commonly adopted and the amount of omissions is considerably reduced. The general tendency in subtitling is towards standardization that also contributes to the shift of the audience’s attention to non-verbal dimensions. This descriptive work is not able yet to provide quantitative data in support of these conclusions, therefore I will try not to fall into easy generalisations. As Díaz-Cintas (2004) reminds us, it is important to widen the area of contrastive analysis in order to present stable norms that regulate the field of subtitling and in order to do this, the approach to the

123

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano study of subtitling cannot be merely linguistic, but should work in a more interdisciplinary perspective.

References

Ascheid, A. (1997). Speaking Tongues: Voice Dubbing in the Cinema as Cultural Ventriloquism. Velvet Light Trap, 40, p. 32-41. Chaume, F. (2004). Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing. London: Routledge. Culpeper, J. (2001). Language and Characterisation. People in Plays and Other Texts. Harlow: Longman. Díaz Cintas, J. (2004). In Search for a theoretical framework for the study of audiovisual translation. In Orero, P. (ed.), Topics on Audiovisual Translation, p. 21-34. Amsterdam- Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Díaz Cintas, J. &Remael, A. (2007). Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Ivarsson, J. & Carroll, M. (1998). Subtitling. Simrishamn: TransEdit. Leppihalme, R. (2000). The two Faces of Standardization: On the translations of regionalism in literary dialogue. In Maier, C. (ed.), Evaluation and Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Marrone, G. (2004). La Guerra dei mondi possibili (ancora sul caso Montalbano). Urbino: Centro di semiotica. McRae, E. (2011). Translation of the sicilianità in the fictional languages of Giovanni Verga and Andrea Camilleri. Ph.D. Thesis. The University of Auckland. Retrieved from: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/6974 Moon, R. (1998). Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English. A Corpus-Based Approach. Oxford: Clarendon. Pedersen, J. (2005). How is culture rendered in subtitles? MuTra-Audiovisual Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings. Copenhagen: EU-High Level Scientific Conference Series. Taylor, C. (2000). In Defence of the word: Subtitles as conveyors of meaning and guardians of culture. In Bosinelli, R.M., Heiss, C., Soffritti, M., Bernardini, S. (eds.), La Traduzione Multimediale: quale traduzione per quale testo? Bologna: CLUEB. Venuti, L. (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility. London and New York: Routledge.

124

“Montalbano sono!” Conveying the identity of Sicily Through Subtitles: The Case of Inspector Montalbano

Vizmuller-Zocco, J. (2004). La lingua de ‘Il re di Girgenti’ Il caso Camilleri. Letteratura e Storia. : Sellerio Editore.

Contributor’s Bio: Giulia Magazzù, PhD, works as contract lecturer at “Gabriele D’Annunzio” University of Chieti- Pescara, Italy, where she teaches English linguistics and Translation at undergraduate level. Her research interests are: Corpus Linguistics applied to Translation Studies, Audiovisual Translation and Sociolinguistics.She has worked as a translator from English into Italian at a number ofevents and advertising campaigns in Italy. Her specialization and area of expertise is in the field of English to Italian audiovisual translation (subtitling and dubbing).

E-mail address: [email protected]

125