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Translation and the Construction of Identity: Abstracts
Date: 12-14 August 2004
Venue: Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea
Elena di Giovanni
The aim of this paper is to analyze the mainstream productions released by the
Walt Disney Company at the turn of the century (1991-2000), which are centred
upon the depiction of cultural alterity.
Panel 7: The Verbal, the Visual, the Translator
Verbal and Nonverbal Aspects of Cultural Alterity: The Translation of Disney
Films
University of Bologna, Italy
The iconic and verbal languages are the most important codes which take part in
the creation of animated films, but the juxtaposition of images and words to
portray otherness deserves special attention as it reveals interesting attitudes
and strategies. Making reference to the first scenes of the films – and other
meaningful excerpts – it will be shown that cultural representations in Disney
films rely on a set of fixed stereotypes, both on the visual and verbal levels,
making up a common repertoire created and supported by Western countries. Remote
cultures are therefore depicted in an extremely conventional way, they are
denied any sort of dynamism and are merely a narrative pretext, an ‘object’ in
the hands of the films’ creators, used to reinforce the supremacy of the
narrating American culture.
When considering the Italian versions of these films, it appears that the
translation of stereotyped expressions which refer to the distant cultures – and
are supported by equally conventional image s– poses no problem: the status of
‘inanimate objects’ attached to such cultures is easily transferred from one
Western language/culture to another. By contrasts, difficulties arise in
translating the countless linguistic and visual references to the narrating
American culture, which are much more specific and opaque than those employed to
evoke the other.
The cultural encounter which seems, at first glance, to be the core of the films
turns out to be an act of colonization on the part of American culture (Zipes
1994:94), which aims at reinforcing its economic and cultural supremacy through
the powerful cinematic medium.
© IATIS 2003