Since the anime boom of the 1990s and 2000s, the popularity of anime (Japanese animation) in the Western world has increased tremendously. Even though Western localization companies used to view...Show moreSince the anime boom of the 1990s and 2000s, the popularity of anime (Japanese animation) in the Western world has increased tremendously. Even though Western localization companies used to view anime as ‘just another form of Saturday morning children’s cartoons’ at first, as popularity increased, they came to the realization that it is a wholly different genre and business entirely. And as fans started demanding localizations that stayed as true as possible to the original versions, localization companies started paying closer attention to the way they translated these shows. But just how much does the audience influence the localization of anime? This research attempts to shed some light on that matter by comparing three anime series aimed at different audiences and looking at the different approaches localization companies have when tackling these shows.Show less
The purpose of this thesis is to discern whether Dutch gamers and non-gamers want to play games in Dutch and if so, what they think of existing translations. In order to investigate the research...Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to discern whether Dutch gamers and non-gamers want to play games in Dutch and if so, what they think of existing translations. In order to investigate the research question, an online survey was created and distributed amongst a Dutch sample audience consisting of five different types of gamers, including non-gamers; questions involved the subject’s opinions on several areas of videogame translation and localisation, with a focus on subtitling and dubbing. My hypothesis was that the target group would be willing to play more games if a higher number of them were translated into Dutch in the first place, or if current videogame translations were improved upon in some way. Only the first part of the hypothesis turned out to be false.Show less
This thesis summarises some of the research done on fansubbing. Most of this research is anime-centred. However, another genre where fansubbing has become common practice is the focus of this...Show moreThis thesis summarises some of the research done on fansubbing. Most of this research is anime-centred. However, another genre where fansubbing has become common practice is the focus of this thesis, namely Korean drama. One of the characteristics of fansubbing discussed in this thesis is that many fansubbers have appropriated a foreignizing style of subtitling, instead of domesticizing. I suspected that this was true for the fansubbers of Korean drama as well. To investigate whether this was the case, I focussed on one specific aspect of the Korean language, which is the intricate system surrounding Korean honorifics. I chose to focus my analysis on four Korean age-related honorifics, hyung, oppa, noona, and unni and I compared the translation procedures applied to these terms by both amateur and professional subtitlers. I followed Henrik Gottlieb’s method on extra-linguistic entities to classify the translation procedures found in the subtitles as either foreignizing or domesticizing. The fansubs of the first drama, Coffee Prince, contained many foreignizations, while the fansubs of the second drama, Reply 1997, contained fewer foreignizations. This difference may be the result of the increasing amount of legal online streaming sites where fansubbers subtitle Korean dramas for free or it could be coincidence. More research is needed on fansubbing as it cannot yet be said with certainty that the conclusions drawn from anime-related research apply to other genres as well.Show less
This thesis explores the translation of cultural references in the novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It looks at the translation procedures used to tackle references in the Dutch translation of the...Show moreThis thesis explores the translation of cultural references in the novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It looks at the translation procedures used to tackle references in the Dutch translation of the novel by Ine Willems, using the model by Molina & Albir (2002), and attempts to see how the translation procedures used differ from what literature suggests would be the most common procedure for a certain type of reference, differences which stem from the fact that Wolf Hall belongs to the genre of historical fiction in which cultural references are of increased importance in comparison to regular fiction, yet play a different part in the narrative than in typical texts with a high rate of cultural and historical references, such as non-fiction works of historiography. I will argue that the precise nature of the genre has its effects on the ways references can and ought to be translated, and expound on cases in the Dutch translation in which the translator has or has not used the available procedures to their best advantage in order to prove that the translation of cultural and historical references in historical fiction, as opposed to in other genres, is a different beast entirely and should be more widely recognised as an issue for translators to be aware of.Show less
Song translation is one of the most difficult forms of translation (Susam-Sarajeva, 2008). In addition to the semantic code, translators have to take account of prosodic, poetic, rhythmic, and...Show moreSong translation is one of the most difficult forms of translation (Susam-Sarajeva, 2008). In addition to the semantic code, translators have to take account of prosodic, poetic, rhythmic, and audial codes, to name but a few. Di Giovanni (2008) and Chaume (2012) add to this list the visual code, which is not only prevalent in film or musical, but also in popular music (Kaindl, 2005) and other live performance music genres (Low, 2005). The combination of all these factors contribute to establish some exceedingly severe limitations for song translators. Despite that, however, it is a surprisingly well-established fact that audiovisual translation in general, and song translation in particular, are relatively new and usually ignored areas of research (Franzon, 2008; Mateo, 2008; Susam-Sarajeva, 2008; Siitonen, 2014). Susam-Sarajeva, in the introduction to her 2008 special issue of The Translator, explains that one of the reasons of this is the relative difficulty and craftsmanship that song translation requires, as song translators should not only be near-fluent in both languages, but also have an extensive knowledge of music or drama theory. Another reason is that the field is somewhat outside the borders of traditional translation studies. A third objection may be that in song translation, the borders between translation, adaptation, and rewriting are not as clear-cut as in most other forms of translation. Whatever the exact reasons, however, to date only three major collections seem to have been published on the subject: Songs and Significance, a book of collected articles edited by Gorlée (2005); the aforementioned special issue of The Translator dedicated to music (Susam-Sarajeva, 2008); and Music, Text and Translation, a text book edited by Minors (2013) with chapters by different translation scholars active in the field. This is not to say that there are no other sources, or that the field was only established in 2005 (indeed, articles on the subject have been appearing since the early 20th century [Gorlée, 2005; Kaindl, 2005]), but research has traditionally been quite sparse.Show less
This thesis researches the nuances in the wording of the official English version and the Dutch translation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)...Show moreThis thesis researches the nuances in the wording of the official English version and the Dutch translation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW imposes obligations on the States Parties, but it is unclear how these obligations are legally enforced. This thesis first investigates the enforcement mechanisms of CEDAW and secondly it analyzes the differences between how the English version and the Dutch translation express obligation, both lexically and grammatically. This research is based on the following thesis question: How strong is the expression of degrees of obligation within CEDAW’s official English version and its Dutch translation, and has this strength changed in the process of translation? The findings led to a dichotomy between legislative obligations and the linguistic obligations, where the former is less strong than proposed and the latter is equal in both version.Show less
