La paradoja descriptiva de la traducción y su ilustración a través de un análisis de la subtitulación de The Wire

Over recent decades, translation studies have witnessed how descriptive studies have taken over prescriptive approaches. This essay deals with this subject, proposing that the two theoretical perspectives are not so far apart as may be inferred from the literature available and that, paradoxically, they are very close as regards their ultimate objectives. To develop this proposal, we establish a typology of hypotheses that a translation study should consider from the beginning; once the proposed hypothesis is checked, the implementation of the strategies for the given translation at stake seems to be the same as for descriptive approaches. In order to illustrate this apparent paradox, we observe and analyze some examples of the translated subtitles into Spanish of the first season of the acclaimed American series The Wire, paying special attention to the informal use of language in the dialogues. Following the theoretical frame designed in the first part of the essay, we first analyze the available subtitles in Spanish, and then propose some details pertaining to the translation that might perhaps have permitted a better reception of the series in the target system, that is the Spanish-speaking system.