DOMESTICATION AND FOREIGNIZATION: AN ANALYSIS OF CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS IN OFFICIAL AND NON-OFFICIAL SUBTITLES OF THE TV SERIES HEROES

Abstract

This study is inserted within the Multimedia Translation or Audiovisual Translation (AVT) area and it takes up from where Espindola (2005) has left off. It is aimed at analyzing the same translational product from two different perspectives: Official Subtitles (OS), rendered by Drei Marc Company in Brazil, and Non-Official Subtitles (NS), rendered by the Internet group 9th Wonders. This study analyzes the Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) and the treatment given to them in the light of the concepts of Domestication and Foreignization. The analyzed episode presented 42 CSIs that were identified and categorized. The OS presented 33 foreignized items, 07 domesticated items, and 02 omissions, whereas the NS presented 32 foreignized items, 08 domesticated items, and 02 omissions. During the translational process for subtitling Heroes, the subtitler was faced with cultural diversity and had to deal with such a diversity posed. The few moments where domestication was used, the strategy applied was that of adjustment, diminishing the strangeness towards the cultural elements. When the opposite occurred, the implication was that, by foreignizing, a feeling of strangeness or foreignness was created, impacting the processing or acceptance towards these elements.