"Creative subtitling as film-transformative practice: from immersion to amazement in Edgar Pêra’s The baron"

Dionysios Kapsaskis

"Creative subtitling as film-transformative practice: from immersion to amazement in Edgar Pêra’s The baron"

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In this article, I examine creative subtitling as a cultural practice whose significance exceeds its use value as merely an enhanced variety of subtitling. The article’s main argument is that creative subtitling transforms the films that contain it by expanding further on their creative ideas, by foregrounding these films’ constructedness, and by embedding new layers of self-awareness in them. I begin the analysis by critiquing some recent studies on creative subtitling for downplaying the part of creativity in favour of a reductive conceptualization of translation as meaning transfer. I then turn to Antoine Berman’s account of translation as reflexive practice whose ethical aim is to undo this conceptualization and turn our attention away from meaning and closer to the experience of language itself. Taking translational creativity to mean literally this transformative “undoing”, in the last section, I examine the case of the creative subtitles of Edgar Pêra’s film, The baron (2010). I argue that these subtitles expand further on the creative ideas of that film while simultaneously they “undo” it: they take us out of a state of immersion in the story and into a state of “amazement” at the experience of the language of cinema itself.

Original language	English
Journal	Meta: Translators' Journal
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 12 Feb 2024

Cite this

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title = "{"}Creative subtitling as film-transformative practice: from immersion to amazement in Edgar P{\^e}ra{\textquoteright}s The baron{"}",

abstract = "In this article, I examine creative subtitling as a cultural practice whose significance exceeds its use value as merely an enhanced variety of subtitling. The article{\textquoteright}s main argument is that creative subtitling transforms the films that contain it by expanding further on their creative ideas, by foregrounding these films{\textquoteright} constructedness, and by embedding new layers of self-awareness in them. I begin the analysis by critiquing some recent studies on creative subtitling for downplaying the part of creativity in favour of a reductive conceptualization of translation as meaning transfer. I then turn to Antoine Berman{\textquoteright}s account of translation as reflexive practice whose ethical aim is to undo this conceptualization and turn our attention away from meaning and closer to the experience of language itself. Taking translational creativity to mean literally this transformative “undoing”, in the last section, I examine the case of the creative subtitles of Edgar P{\^e}ra{\textquoteright}s film, The baron (2010). I argue that these subtitles expand further on the creative ideas of that film while simultaneously they “undo” it: they take us out of a state of immersion in the story and into a state of “amazement” at the experience of the language of cinema itself.",

author = "Dionysios Kapsaskis",

year = "2024",

month = feb,

day = "12",

language = "English",

journal = "Meta: Translators' Journal",

issn = "0026-0452",

publisher = "Presses de l'Universite de Montreal",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - "Creative subtitling as film-transformative practice: from immersion to amazement in Edgar Pêra’s The baron"

AU - Kapsaskis, Dionysios

PY - 2024/2/12

Y1 - 2024/2/12

N2 - In this article, I examine creative subtitling as a cultural practice whose significance exceeds its use value as merely an enhanced variety of subtitling. The article’s main argument is that creative subtitling transforms the films that contain it by expanding further on their creative ideas, by foregrounding these films’ constructedness, and by embedding new layers of self-awareness in them. I begin the analysis by critiquing some recent studies on creative subtitling for downplaying the part of creativity in favour of a reductive conceptualization of translation as meaning transfer. I then turn to Antoine Berman’s account of translation as reflexive practice whose ethical aim is to undo this conceptualization and turn our attention away from meaning and closer to the experience of language itself. Taking translational creativity to mean literally this transformative “undoing”, in the last section, I examine the case of the creative subtitles of Edgar Pêra’s film, The baron (2010). I argue that these subtitles expand further on the creative ideas of that film while simultaneously they “undo” it: they take us out of a state of immersion in the story and into a state of “amazement” at the experience of the language of cinema itself.

AB - In this article, I examine creative subtitling as a cultural practice whose significance exceeds its use value as merely an enhanced variety of subtitling. The article’s main argument is that creative subtitling transforms the films that contain it by expanding further on their creative ideas, by foregrounding these films’ constructedness, and by embedding new layers of self-awareness in them. I begin the analysis by critiquing some recent studies on creative subtitling for downplaying the part of creativity in favour of a reductive conceptualization of translation as meaning transfer. I then turn to Antoine Berman’s account of translation as reflexive practice whose ethical aim is to undo this conceptualization and turn our attention away from meaning and closer to the experience of language itself. Taking translational creativity to mean literally this transformative “undoing”, in the last section, I examine the case of the creative subtitles of Edgar Pêra’s film, The baron (2010). I argue that these subtitles expand further on the creative ideas of that film while simultaneously they “undo” it: they take us out of a state of immersion in the story and into a state of “amazement” at the experience of the language of cinema itself.

M3 - Article

SN - 0026-0452

JO - Meta: Translators' Journal

JF - Meta: Translators' Journal

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