Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
During and shortly after WOII three modern adaptations of Euripides' Alcestis appeared: Le Mystère d'Alceste by Marguerite Yourcenar (1942), Alcesti di Samuele by Alberto Savinio (1949), and The...Show moreDuring and shortly after WOII three modern adaptations of Euripides' Alcestis appeared: Le Mystère d'Alceste by Marguerite Yourcenar (1942), Alcesti di Samuele by Alberto Savinio (1949), and The Cocktail Party by T.S. Eliot. Alcestis' motivation to sacrifice herself and her reaction on returning to her husband turned out to be blank spots in Euripides' tragedy. The three modern writers gave their main characters three drastically different reasons and reactions. This could partly be explained by their relation to the Second World War.Show less
This thesis reports on a small-scale online self-completion survey on the opinions on subtitling conventions by Dutch viewers in order to investigate the growing dissatisfaction among Dutch viewers...Show moreThis thesis reports on a small-scale online self-completion survey on the opinions on subtitling conventions by Dutch viewers in order to investigate the growing dissatisfaction among Dutch viewers while watching subtitled television. The intuitions of Dutch lay viewers were compared to the opinions of scholars and professionals. A better understanding of lay perception of subtitling could assist in providing translations that satisfy both lay and professional evaluators. The theory suggested that while guidelines exist for subtitling, there is an increasing amount of people who are concerned about the quality of subtitling. Aside from acknowledging other causes for dissatisfaction, this self-completion survey focused on the possibility that outdated guidelines could be a cause for growing dissatisfaction. The results from the survey remained open to interpretation as the opinions of the participants on the samples presented to them were varied. However, the results do suggest that while the existence of a subtitling standard is appreciated for the sake of consistency and predictability, some specific examples of audiovisual material might benefit from deviating from the prescribed standard. Yet, the data did not provide a conclusive answer on how to implement any changes, and suggested that the changes suggested in this thesis would provide both solutions and problems for a nearly equal number of people.Show less
