Translation and Transcreation in the Dubbing Process: A Genetic Approach

This article aims to show the relevance of archival and manuscript research (Munday 2012, 2013) for the study of dubbing and focuses on the role played by the various figures involved in the translation process. The production process of dubbing involves a chain of agents who all contribute to “the creative construction of the target dialogue” (Taylor 1999: 432). The dialogue translator will usually do a rough translation, a more or less literal version of the dialogue list, which will then be passed on to the dialogue adapter, whose task is to create convincing dialogues that meet all the lip-sync requirements (Pavesi 2005, Chiaro 2009, Chaume 2012). We know that the dialogues are further altered in the subsequent stages of production, since both the dubbing director and the dubbing actors may intervene and modify the dubbing script to a greater or lesser extent (Bollettieri Bosinelli 2002: 87, Paolinelli and Di Fortunato 2005). A case study is discussed to illustrate the application of process-oriented methodologies based on manuscript analysis for investigating the issue of agency and creativity in dubbing.