Building on the work of Vermeer and Katharina Reiss, Christiane Nord developed a theory of ‘translating as a purposeful activity’.273 She notes that in Vermeer’s
theory ‘one of the most important factors determining the purpose of a translation is the addressee, who is the intended receiver or audience of the target text with their culture-specific world-knowledge, their expectations and their communicative needs’.274 She also highlights the importance of the ‘translation
brief’ in determining the skopos of the target text.275 Many of the aspects of Nord’s
functionalist approach support the development of the theoretical framework applied in this thesis. Although it would not be possible to access specific commission information, or translation briefs, for each case study film, the subtitler questionnaires will inform the understanding of the work of subtitlers translating banlieue film, and the kind of requests made of them. Indeed, explaining the development of functional approaches to translation, Nord notes that ‘Holz-Mänttäri places special emphasis on the actional aspects of the translation process, on analysing the roles of the participants (initiator, translator, user, message receiver) and the situational conditions (time, place, medium) in which their activities take place.’276 The importance of these factors is also
highlighted by Mason.277 The macro-contextual analysis will serve to inform our
understanding of the context of reception (or the situational condition of the message receivers), as well as, to some degree, the roles of the director and the
273 Christiane Nord, Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained, Translation Theories Explained (Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 1997).
274 Nord, p. 12. 275 Nord, p. 30. 276 Nord, p. 13. 277 Mason, p. 19.
audiences (both in France and the UK). The subtitler questionnaires mentioned earlier will offer an insight into the situational conditions in which the films were produced, and the subtitles written, as well as the subtitlers’ perspective on the roles of the participants (including themselves). The examination of some of these features is advocated by Nord in relation to literary translation, as they form part of what she refers to as the ‘communicative situation’.278
Vermeer refers to intertextual coherence and intratextual coherence in relation to functionalism. Intratextual coherence is related to the TA and their understanding of the target text, whilst intertextual coherence is to do with the relationship between the ST and TT. Of course, in the case of subtitling, this is of paramount importance given the juxtaposition of the ST (or SLD here) and the subtitles – the TT in subtitling is the AV whole including the added subtitles. There appears to be intertextual coherence in some subtitles for banlieue film. However, considering the subtitles from a specifically British perspective will shed more light on this, as there are certain phrases that may cause confusion for a British English viewer. In addition, there may be instances in which the subtitles do not make sense.279 It might also be argued that intertextual coherence is
limited. The conclusions of scholars working on earlier banlieue films - in particular Montgomery - would suggest that existing subtitles do not represent all aspects of the sociolect in the films. Based on existing research, then, which primarily consists of case studies of La haine, it seems that there could be greater intra- and intertextual coherence in subtitles for French banlieue cinema. This will be examined in the case studies. In addition to the importance of coherence between (and within) SLD and subtitles in the translation of banlieue film, this integrated methodology will aim to consider whether there is also semiotic cohesion within the subtitled films. This is the point at which the linguistic and polysemiotic analyses truly come together. Furthermore, the notion of semiotic cohesion could be linked to Vermeer’s intertextual coherence, since the ST and TT are brought together in one audiovisual whole, and the intertextual coherence of the subtitled film relies upon the various aspects of the polysemiotic network
278 Nord, pp. 80–84.
279 An example of this was highlighted in one case study of La haine, where Vinz’s ‘il tue trop, sa mère!’ [lit. ‘he kills too much, his mother!’ Fig. ‘he’s killing it, man’] is subtitled as ‘he’s a real mother killer’. Hamaidia, pp. 9–10.
functioning together (thus the other strands of the network may supplement the information provided in the subtitles to convey meaning).
Semiotic cohesion is related to the polysemiotic nature of film, and the meaning made by the channels as they function together. In his case study of the subtitles for La haine, Mével suggested that the ‘dialect-for-dialect approach’ employed by the subtitlers might lead to a displacement of the characters’ identities.280 He
suggests that the subtitles in themselves are not necessarily problematic, but the use of American language on images of a very specific French context ‘is rather incongruous’.281 Mével’s comments on La haine could be related to semiotic
cohesion as initially explained by Chaume, and discussed by Díaz-Cintas and Remael, who note that information on screen can supplement the subtitles, filling information gaps, for example, and vice-versa. 282 They also highlight some
important factors in semiotic cohesion including synchrony between subtitles and image, body language, and editing and camera movements.283
The significance of the link between subtitles, dialogue and the rest of the polysemiotic network is one of the reasons for which this methodology has been adopted. Audiovisual translation is studied as a phenomenon apart from translation proper precisely because of the nature of audiovisual content as a combination of modes which work together to create meaning. If we are to examine how far the subtitles in question convey identity, the other information available to the viewer when they watch a subtitled film should be considered.
The methodology is represented in Figure 4, which demonstrates how the various aspects described above are integrated. The subtitling situation feeds into, and underpins the macro- and micro-contextual analysis, which come together when the subtitled films are analysed closely in relation to skopos theory and the socio- political messages presented within them.
280 Mével, ‘The Translation of Identity’, p. 53. 281 Ibid. p. 55.
282 Díaz-Cintas and Remael, p. 50. 283 Ibid. pp. 50-54.