La traduction audiovisuelle

The present study is intended primarily as a contribution to translation teaching. It deals with audiovisual translation as a process of intercultural mediation (Guillot and Pavesi 2019), in particular with the potential of translated televisual products addressed to a younger audience to promote the acceptance of diversity through a combination of translation strategies. It focuses on a recent type of audiovisual product – i.e., multiethnic/multicultural situation comedies for tween-age audiences, or ‘kidcoms’ (Manfredi 2018, 2021) – suggesting that this might represent valuable material for activities of translational analysis and practice within a University translation course. A Canadian sitcom, i.e How to Be Indie (Santamaria, May & Bolch 2009-2011), dubbed into different languages, including Italian as Essere Indie (2010-2012), is offered as a case in point. Its episodes revolve around the adventures of a thirteen-year-old girl, Indira (nicknamed Indie), and family, emigrated to Canada from India, and centre around the issue of cultural diversity. The identification of macro- and micro- translation strategies that convey the linguistic and cultural representation of characters’ identities is proposed as a classroom activity aimed at highlighting that a (dubbing) translator has the possibility of acting as an intercultural mediator, with a double goal: on the one hand, to permit the intercultural exchange between different languages, texts and contexts and, on the other hand, to safeguard linguistic and cultural diversity.