Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bakalářská diplomová práce 2019 Tereza Raková Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Tereza Raková Transfer of Cultural Differences in the Czech Dubbing of The Simpsons Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Lucie Seibertová, Ph. D. 2019 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Lucie Seibertová, Ph.D. for her unconditional patience, valuable advice, support and guidance. My sincere thanks undeniably go to my family and friends for their kind and constant support. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 2 Theory of Dubbing ................................................................................................ 4 2.1 History of Dubbing ............................................................................................ 4 2.2 Dubbing Versus Other Types of Audiovisual Translation ................................. 5 2.2.1 Subtitles ................................................................................................ 5 2.2.2 Voice-over ............................................................................................ 6 2.2.3 Dubbing ................................................................................................ 8 2.3 Strategies of Dubbing ....................................................................................... 12 2.3.1 Techniques in Transferring Cultural References ................................ 13 2.4 Issues in Dubbing ............................................................................................. 14 3 Research .............................................................................................................. 16 3.1 Specifics of Dubbing of The Simpsons ............................................................ 16 3.2 About The Simpsons ......................................................................................... 17 3.3 Analysis ............................................................................................................ 18 3.3.1 Techniques for Transfer of CR Identified ........................................... 18 3.3.2 Season 1, Episode 5: “Bart the General” ............................................ 20 3.3.2.1 Repetition ........................................................................................ 20 3.3.2.2 Glosses ............................................................................................ 20 3.3.2.3 Absolute Universalization ............................................................... 22 3.3.2.4 Omission ......................................................................................... 23 3.3.2.5 Creation of a New Cultural Reference ............................................ 24 3.3.3 Season 17, Episode 9: “Simpson Christmas Stories” ......................... 25 3.3.3.1 Repetition ........................................................................................ 25 3.3.3.2 Glosses ............................................................................................ 26 3.3.3.3 Cultural Substitution ....................................................................... 26 3.3.3.4 Omission ......................................................................................... 29 3.3.4 Season 29, Episode 12: “Homer is Where the Art Isn’t” .................... 29 3.3.4.1 Repetition ........................................................................................ 30 3.3.4.2 Literal Translation ........................................................................... 30 3.3.4.3 Glosses ............................................................................................ 31 3.3.4.4 Absolute Universalization ............................................................... 32 3.3.4.5 Cultural Substitution ....................................................................... 33 3.3.4.6 Omission ......................................................................................... 34 3.3.4.7 Creation of a New Cultural Reference ............................................ 36 3.4 Analysis Conclusion......................................................................................... 36 4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 38 5 Bibliography ....................................................................................................... 41 5.1 Primary Sources ............................................................................................... 41 5.2 Secondary Sources ........................................................................................... 41 6 Resume (English) ................................................................................................ 44 7 Resumé (Czech) .................................................................................................. 46 1 Introduction The Simpsons, an animated sitcom is highly popular among not only Czech and American audience. Even though it is animated, the target audience are not only children, but people of any age, as the show deals with various problems and topics that people are familiar with, such as issues in marriage, family problems, religion, bullying, social class, ethnicity and more. Besides that, one of the reasons for its popularity is undoubtedly the number of cultural references. In audiovisual translation, cultural references may present considerable difficulties due to their link to the specific culture of the country where the sitcom or any other form of entertainment comes from. This thesis deals particularly with the cultural references used in the above-mentioned sitcom The Simpsons. It focuses on the cultural references and their transfer from the original audio track into the Czech dubbing together with the techniques for transfer of cultural references used. It also tracks whether there are any differences in dubbing strategies within the time span they cover as it analyses three different episodes from the first, the seventeenth and the twenty-ninth season, spanning the period of twenty-five years. The theoretical part of this thesis deals with the history of dubbing, the comparison of dubbing to other types of audiovisual translation, strategies of dubbing and issues in dubbing. The history of dubbing is important to mention as the strategies and the dubbing process itself has changed during the 20th and 21st century. This thesis assumes that nowadays or in recent years, translators use substitution much less that they did in past, especially in the 90s, as the familiarity with American culture was not so widespread. The comparison of dubbing to the other types of audiovisual translation (voice-over and subtitling) is mentioned to demonstrate the differences between them, as each of them brings further challenges to the field. Strategies used in dubbing vary, 1 depending on the type of the form of entertainment and the visual content. There are many factors influencing dubbing and the strategies used, such as visual content, lip- synchronisation, culture specifics tied to the respective culture and more. The practical part begins with specific features of The Simpsons dubbing as there are particular features dependant on the fact that it is an animated sitcom set in America. The thesis then explains the basic plot and characteristics of the sitcom for the reader to better understand the usage of references and the analysis itself. It is not concerned with a detailed description of the characters or the story, but it rather gives the reader a brief insight into the sitcom and the nuclear Simpson family that the show mainly focuses on. The majority of the practical part of the thesis then focuses on the analysis, which is done on three selected episodes of the sitcom, which have been chosen for the number of cultural references that occur in the episodes and the time span they cover. The analysis focuses on cultural references, whether it comes to food, TV and movies, entertainment in general or personalities and historical or military terms and more. With each episode there is a plot overview and with each reference there is a story background to it explained so the reference makes sense to the reader. For each episode examined, there is a comparison of the original references and the references in the Czech dubbing put in a table to make the comparison more visible and an explanation of the meaning of both the source and target language messages follows. The cultural references are sorted according to the technique used for their transfer. It is assumed that the differences between strategies used for the translation in the selected episodes will prove the hypothesis that in the past cultural references were substituted more often than they are in the present. The analysis in this paper might be useful for further research in the field of audiovisual translation as it deals with a very popular cultural sitcom known by many 2 people. It could help to better understand the cultural references and why they were translated in that particular way. It also maps the development of Czech dubbing of The Simpsons and the