The Big Bang Thesis: Translating Cultural Intertextual References in Subtitles

Abstract

Due to English becoming an obligatory subject in primary and secondary school the Dutch have a reasonable comprehension of the English language. This leads to the Dutch spotting “errors” in their subtitled television shows and films every now and then. Providing proper subtitles can be challenging when there are references involved that may be particularly related to a specific culture. In this thesis, the focus is the rendering of cultural intertextual references. Jan Pedersen offers an extensive overview of parameters that are crucial to subtitling and provides a foundation for decision-making. Even though the parameters interact and influence one another, the genre forms the core in the decision-making process, as humour and drama have different aims. The centrality and transculturality of a reference shows the importance of a reference in the source text. Then, the polysemiotic nature of subtitling and the co-text can guide in rendering the reference. Extratextuality determines to what extent a reference exists outside of the source text. Finally, media-specific constraints are a constant factor, which is a parameter that affects every aspect of subtitling and is not unique to the rendering of cultural intertextual references.