FROM EXHIBITIONS TO THE SCREEN: THE CHALLENGES OF SUBTITLING ART FROM ENGLISH INTO ITALIAN

Mariagrazia De Meo

The aim of the paper is to explore the characteristics of English for Art Purposes, also referred to as

International Art English (Rule and Levine 2012), and to focus on the translation strategies used in the

Italian subtitles of this type of content-related discourse in the art documentary Goya: Visions of Flesh and

Blood (2016).

The specific domain of English for Art Purposes 1 refers to the study of a functional language used by the

art discourse community of artists, art critics and academics to describe and interpret visual arts in specific

social and cultural contexts. A significant contribution to the field comes from the area of language

teaching, mainly to second or foreign language Art students, through academic programmes, websites,

blogs and textbooks.

Harris (2003) used the term Artspeak to refer to an open-ended type of discourse mainly intended as a

means of propaganda, to obtain social validation through the use of socially, politically and educationally

loaded words.

2. A framework of analysis

In English for Specific Purposes (ESP) research, the construction of a methodological framework of analysis

has frequently drawn on Systemic Functional Linguistics and Genre Analysis, as is also the case in the

analysis of the source text and target text in Translation Studies. In Functional Linguistics, the notion of

three co-occurring factors, i.e. field, tenor and mode, where field refers to the subject-matter and purpose,

tenor to the interpersonal relation between interlocutors expressed through the use of formal or informal

language, and mode to the written or spoken medium. These elements activate three main linguistic

functions. First, the Experiential or Ideational function relates to the fact that every semiotic text,

regardless of the medium, is based on the encoder’s experience of the world he/she is describing; second,

the Interpersonal function refers to the type of interpersonal relation established between the producer

and the receiver of the message; third, the Textual function means that the message will have the

structural features of a properly formed text as regards coherence and cohesion, in relation to a distinctive

genre.

According to such a model, the visual arts should be described and interpreted in terms of three functions:

a Representational, a Modal, and a Compositional meaning. The Representational function is expressed by

elements that convey the experiential dimension, hence it concerns the description of the content of the

painting, through a progressive order going from a single figure or detail to the picture as a whole. The

Modal function pertains to the interpretation of both representational and compositional elements of the

painting, through the use of rhetorical strategies and intertextuality, in order to connect the viewer to the

painting. The Compositional function relates to the description of elements of composition such as the

arrangement of forms, proportions, and so on (O’Toole 2011: 16-31). The scholar points out that, in spite of

its apparent complexity, this semiotic model for the classification of functional elements provides a reliable

framework for the interpretation of art that would otherwise risk undertaking undefined and unclear paths.

Moreover, since “the boundaries between functions are permeable” (O’Toole 1990: 193), the language of

art does not necessarily need to reproduce faithfully the order of macro functions described in the semiotic

model. The main recommendation is, in fact, that art commentary gives priority to interpretative elements

of the Modal function, as its main purpose is to engage the viewer’s attention and emotions.

In other words, the representational and compositional elements should intertwine with the expression of

the art critic’s personal engagement, highlighting those elements that were probably the ones the artist

intended to exploit to make the picture connect to the observer.

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FROM EXHIBITIONS TO THE SCREEN: THE CHALLENGES OF SUBTITLING ART FROM ENGLISH INTO ITALIAN

Mariagrazia De Meo The aim of the paper is to explore the characteristics of English for Art Purposes, also referred to as International Art English (Rule and Levine 2012), and to focus on the translation strategies used in the Italian subtitles of this type of content-related discourse in the art documentary Goya: Visions of Flesh and Blood (2016). The specific domain of English for Art Purposes 1 refers to the study of a functional language used by the art discourse community of artists, art critics and academics to describe and interpret visual arts in specific social and cultural contexts. A significant contribution to the field comes from the area of language teaching, mainly to second or foreign language Art students, through academic programmes, websites, blogs and textbooks. Harris (2003) used the term Artspeak to refer to an open-ended type of discourse mainly intended as a means of propaganda, to obtain social validation through the use of socially, politically and educationally loaded words.

A framework of analysis In English for Specific Purposes (ESP) research, the construction of a methodological framework of analysis has frequently drawn on Systemic Functional Linguistics and Genre Analysis, as is also the case in the analysis of the source text and target text in Translation Studies. In Functional Linguistics, the notion of register refers to language used in a situational context, determining the construction of meaning through three co-occurring factors, i.e. field, tenor and mode, where field refers to the subject-matter and purpose, tenor to the interpersonal relation between interlocutors expressed through the use of formal or informal language, and mode to the written or spoken medium. These elements activate three main linguistic functions. First, the Experiential or Ideational function relates to the fact that every semiotic text, regardless of the medium, is based on the encoder’s experience of the world he/she is describing; second, the Interpersonal function refers to the type of interpersonal relation established between the producer and the receiver of the message; third, the Textual function means that the message will have the structural features of a properly formed text as regards coherence and cohesion, in relation to a distinctive genre. According to such a model, the visual arts should be described and interpreted in terms of three functions: a Representational, a Modal, and a Compositional meaning. The Representational function is expressed by elements that convey the experiential dimension, hence it concerns the description of the content of the painting, through a progressive order going from a single figure or detail to the picture as a whole. The Modal function pertains to the interpretation of both representational and compositional elements of the painting, through the use of rhetorical strategies and intertextuality, in order to connect the viewer to the painting. The Compositional function relates to the description of elements of composition such as the arrangement of forms, proportions, and so on (O’Toole 2011: 16-31). The scholar points out that, in spite of its apparent complexity, this semiotic model for the classification of functional elements provides a reliable framework for the interpretation of art that would otherwise risk undertaking undefined and unclear paths. Moreover, since “the boundaries between functions are permeable” (O’Toole 1990: 193), the language of art does not necessarily need to reproduce faithfully the order of macro functions described in the semiotic model. The main recommendation is, in fact, that art commentary gives priority to interpretative elements of the Modal function, as its main purpose is to engage the viewer’s attention and emotions. In other words, the representational and compositional elements should intertwine with the expression of the art critic’s personal engagement, highlighting those elements that were probably the ones the artist intended to exploit to make the picture connect to the observer.

Features of English for Art Purposes English for Art Purposes can be considered as a subgenre of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), whose main shared function is to persuade and promote understanding through the use of narratives and intertextual references (Preece 1994). In his study of register in academic discourse, Biber (2006) argued that, while in written texts the achievement of persuasion is built through reference to highly informative material, in spoken texts this relies more directly on the interpersonal involvement achieved in a more spontaneous manner. In the genres of English for Art Purposes, the urge to “establish relationships between words, images and objects in the real world” (Crețiu 2013b: 4) is obtained through the formal analysis of an artwork and a constant shift between descriptions and interpretations. Indeed, credibility and persuasiveness of subjective interpretative statements often rely on descriptions of real people and historical events or reference to documents and letters. In addition to this, the language of the art commentary, only apparently spontaneous, is a type of constructed orality that is written to be spoken. Therefore, although being dense and thought-through, it also relies on linguistic and pragmatic features to achieve interpersonal involvement, through the articulation of subjective emotions, and the expression of uncertainty, aimed at engaging the viewer in the process of speculation on artworks. For the purpose of the present study, we are going to identify semantic, syntactic and rhetorical structures that convey the Interpersonal function in language within the specific context of talking about art. O’Toole (2011: 12-13) suggests focusing on those elements normally used in spoken language to engage the viewer, i.e. (1) direct address through the use of the personal pronouns you and we; (2) use of direct questions and answers; (3) use of modal verbs and of lexical items signalling lack of certainty and the speaker’s interpretative mode suggesting the viewer’s response to the painting; (4) prosodic features such as intonation and the rising and falling tone of voice. Crețiu (2013b: 13-15), a Romanian scholar and teacher of English for Art Purposes, suggests considering terminological specificities at lexical level, proceeding towards the morphological, syntactical and semantic level. More specifically, the linguistic signals of interpretation that can be found at the lexical level include the use of adverbs, subordinating conjunctions of manner, and specific nouns and verbs.
1. Subtitling Subtitling represents the most widely researched audio-visual translation mode with dubbing and voice- over, pushing the boundaries of a mere language transfer from one linguistic code to another (Taylor 2002). Subtitles translate spoken dialogue, which is still audible on screen, into written text that is synchronously added at the bottom of the screen and, in Jakobson’s (1959) terms, can be either intralinguistic (i.e. using the same language) or interlinguistic (i.e. from one linguistic code to another), and always intersemiotic (i.e. from spoken to written language). The adaptation of subtitles to the screen entails the compliance to technical time and space parameters. Therefore, the generally accepted norms specify that the time of permanence of the title on the screen should not exceed 6-7 seconds and the length of each line should stay within the limit of 33-40 characters, divided into a maximum of two lines at a time (Gottlieb 1992; Ivarsson and Caroll 1998; Lomheim 1999). Due to these formal restrictions, subtitles seem to inevitably require reduction, either total or partial, which, in turn, may generate problems with the “information density of the message” (Taylor 2002: 144), particularly once the source dialogue has been cleared of spoken features of conversation such as repetitions, hesitations, false starts, etc. Empirical research on the translation processes has produced numerous proposals for a categorization of translation strategies, considered as “the first level of abstraction from the concrete level data, which contains translation solutions”. The subtitler’s choices concerning text reduction are always dependent on the principle of relevance (Gutt 1991), which goes beyond linguistic issues, concerning not only meaning but also purpose and function of the source language (SL). Therefore, reduction includes total omission on the one hand, and condensation

The narrator’s voice also functions as the main linking device, connecting the scenes of art commentaries, and the fictional frames in which an actor in Goya’s clothes is walking or painting, while an off-screen voice with a strong Spanish accent is reading the artist’s letters to Zapater. Finally, the art commentary presents a continuous shift between descriptions and interpretations of Goya’s portraits as well as comments on his life, career and complex personality, through the voices of leading curators, historians and other artists, including, for example, the Prado’s curator of prints and drawings who goes through the pages of Goya’s rare Italian notebook in Spanish, adding a multilingual layer to the documentary. The art commentary is the genre that most clearly contains features of spoken language, whereas both the biographical narration and the artist’s statement recall written language in terms of structure and level of formality. Goya complies to the recurrent structure of documentaries described by Matamala (2009: 5), where usually “a narrator presents the situation, a talking head gives her opinion and some shots of real action with real speech are included”. Here, only the latter voices are absent, as we do not encounter instances of real spontaneous speech; the only real scenes are shots of people visiting the exhibition with background music. Subtitling is the only mode of transfer present on screen. On the one hand, maintaining the original soundtrack provides a sense of authenticity while, on the other, it comes as a surprise for two main reasons. First, as mentioned previously, documentaries usually include subtitles in combination with other translation modes such as voice-over, lip-sync and off-screen dubbing, in particular in countries like Italy that maintain a well-established dubbing tradition (Hanoulle, Hoster and Remael 2015), mainly for cinema screenings. Second, for the specific genre of art documentaries, subtitles may distract the audience from the intriguing close-ups. Nevertheless, the presence of subtitles may imply a thoroughly planned pedagogical choice, aimed at maintaining the original sound of the elegant and meaningful utterances of critics and curators and of the Spanish incursions, as part of the aesthetic dimension of the film. Furthermore, subtitling in art documentaries functions as a powerful didactic tool for language learning, blending specific content and academic language together.

Analysis and results The analysis of the case study draws on the genre of the oral art commentary, focusing on the linguistic and pragmatic features used to signal the modal function of interpretation and on the rhetorical devices marking the alternation between informative description and interpretation. In particular, when describing a painting, the structure of the commentary follows a common path. First, the description begins with reference to the main character; second, there is an almost immediate shift towards interpretation, producing a sort of gossiping effect, with reference to Goya’s personal relationship to the character or to additional information external to the painting. Then, finally, the description of the characters and composition comes to the fore usually through a close-up on a detail or gaze that takes the viewer straight into the painting. Description and interpretation continuously overlap through a rather informal and direct tenor. At a syntactical level, the use of the personal pronouns ‘you’ and ‘we’ and of modality establishes an informal and direct tone that is rendered more formally in the subtitles through the choice of impersonal structures, depriving the TL of a specific connotative element. The use of direct questions and answers is another rhetorical strategy expressing interpersonal reference and a direct address to the viewer. The expression of intentionality through informality is also achieved with the use of rhetorical devices conveying “additional intended meaning” (Hatim and Mason 1997: 69), as in the case of lexical repetition and figures of speech, i.e. metaphors, similes and hyperboles. Besides being a recurrent feature of spoken discourse, frequent repetition of lexical items, e.g. adjectives, verbs, adverbs, is also an important feature

that has come to the fore in the analysis, as it transmits a sense of spontaneous and progressive construction of thinking rather than a mere report of pre-packed theories. Subtitles generally avoid repetition of the same words, either through omission, as in excerpts (23) to (25), or by substitution with near-synonyms, interrupting in a way the smooth language flow of the SL, as in (26). However, the closing commentary of the documentary shows an interesting inversion of the trend, as shown in (27) and (28), where the subtitle maintains lexical repetition and redundancy, perhaps as a strategy to increase the emotional tone of the epilogue. Art commentaries benefit from and rely on the communicative force and frequent occurrence of figurative language, mainly retained in the subtitles through direct translation or reformulation of culturally connotated expressions in the TL. Many of the comments on the features of English for Art Purposes in the genre of the art commentary could also apply to the description of the characteristics of spoken genres in EAP. However, the main quality that comes to the fore in the former is the interpersonal and collaborative modality and the constant shift between description of formal elements and tentative interpretation expressed through an informal tenor.

Concluding remarks In Goya, the art historian Juliette Wilson-Bareau speaks of an artist’s portraits as a record of a “spiritual and emotional conversation” with the person watching them. The language of the art critics verbalizes this emotional component in a non-judgemental interpretation and description of the artworks. , English for Art Purposes, both in written and in spoken texts, strives to capture the readers’/viewers’ imagination by drawing them into a persuasive and engaging conversation, although descriptions can become, at times, technical and meticulous endeavours. In the art commentary, the connotative charge of lexical items and figurative language transmit the communicative purpose of emotionally connecting the viewer through an accessible yet aesthetically pleasing and smooth language. Moreover, the informality and directness of tenor is essential to this purpose and it is achieved through the use of syntactical constructions and expressions of vagueness, lack of definition, and repetitions fulfilling the interpersonal function of including the viewer in the process of meaning reconstruction. In subtitling, the transfer of this aesthetic dimension is achieved at a lexical level mainly through the choice of direct translation or reformulation, aimed at transferring the pragmatic meaning. Particularly in the case of noun and adverbial phrases, the subtitler is not over-concerned with excessive length, often choosing to use more rather than fewer words, also in consideration of the slow pace of the original lines. Therefore, the subtitles maintain a rich semantic texture. On the other hand, the informal and explicit tenor of the utterances sees a consistent shift towards formality due to the frequent omission of markers of uncertainty and repetition, and the use of personal pronouns and markers of modality, as is frequently the case when switching from spoken language to written subtitles. for subtitling of English for Art Purposes, further research should move to wards the implementation of a comparative investigation of semantic and syntactical features in the TL and the creation of a larger corpus for quantitative analysis.

From Exhibitions to the Screen: The Challenges of Subtitling Art from English into Italian, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

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FROM EXHIBITIONS TO THE SCREEN: THE CHALLENGES OF SUBTITLING ART FROM ENGLISH INTO ITALIAN