Generic Fluency in Fansubbing

Neology as the Voice of Science Fiction in Non-professional Subtitling

Authors

• Suvi Korpi University of Helsinki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61200/mikael.129257

Keywords:

fansubbing, audiovisual translation, generic fluency

Abstract

This study analyses the genre-specific features in the non-professional subtitling (fansubbing) of audiovisual science fiction (SF). Considered as one of the most important linguistic elements in SF, neologies create the cognitive estrangement from reality that is characteristic of the SF genre, cognitively estranging the reader from reality. Evaluating the translation of neologies is thus used as a tool to evaluate the transfer of the source text (ST) genre to the target text (TT). When the neologies are retained as genre-specific features of SF, the TT genre is regarded as generically fluent and the ST genre is accessible for the TT viewer. The study material reveals that the non-professional translations have retained the neologies with greater percentage than the professional translations of the same TV series translations resulting in a more fluent SF genre. This can be due to the tendency of fansubs to use foreignizing translation strategies. The material of the study consists of the neologies in non-professional and professional subtitles of contemporary Anglo-American SF series, which were analysed to determine whether they retain or recreate the SF generic fluency.