Article published In:
BabelVol. 67:5 (2021) ► pp.579–598
Looking at redefining sex(uality)
Reinforcing sexual references in the Spanish dubbing of Looking
This article examines the dubbing of the 2014 American gay-themed series Looking and its treatment of sexual references into Castilian Spanish with a view to exploring the role of audiovisual translation in the discursive construction of homosexuality. While some scholars have decried a historical tendency in translation to attenuate or even suppress references in connection with non-normative sex, the dubbing of Looking, I claim, amplifies these references by way of two strategies: up-scaling and increased explicitness. Drawing upon Jeremy Munday’s (2012) concept of “evaluation” and on appraisal theory as expounded by Martin and White (2005), I aim at revealing the significance of the translator’s lexicogrammatical selections and how these may alter the semiotic import of the characters and, thus, of a certain portrayal of homosexuality. Additionally, such choices may be indicative of the translator’s own stance towards issues of sexuality. Though the strategies analyzed may appear to perpetuate commonplaces regarding gay sexual experience, they ultimately serve, I argue, as a device to generate a language that goes beyond diluted expressions of homosexuality.
Keywords: translation, homosexuality, translator’s agency, ideology, decision-making, appraisal theory, sexual references, representation
Article outline
- Introduction
- The language of sex as a “critical point” of “evaluation”
- Up-scaling attitudes towards sex(uality)
- Increasing sexual explicitness
- Final remarks: Translation and intervention
- Notes
-
References
References
Berlina, Alexandra
2012 “Homosexuality in the Russian Translation of The Hours.” Sexuality and Culture 16 (4): 449–466. 
Chaume, Frederic
2012 Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing. Manchester and Kinderhook: St. Jerome Publishing.
Crespo Fernández, Eliecer
2008 “Sex-Related Euphemism and Dysphemism: An Analysis in Terms of Conceptual Metaphor Theory.” Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos 30 (2): 95–110.
Diccionario de la Lengua Española
Fawcett, Peter
2014 “The Manipulation of Language and Culture in Film Translation.” In Apropos of Ideology: Translation Studies on Ideology-Ideologies in Translation Studies, edited by M. Pérez Calzada, 145–163. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Harvey, Keith
1998 “Translating Camp Talk: Gay identities and Cultural Transfer.” The Translator 4 (2): 295–320.
2000 “Gay Community, Gay Identity and the Translated Text.” TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 13 (1): 137–165.
Larkosh, Christopher
2007 “The Translator’s Closet: Editing Sexualities in Argentine Literary Culture.” TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 20 (2): 63–88.
2011 “Introduction.” In Re-Engendering Translation: Transcultural Practice, Gender/Sexuality and the Politics of Alterity, edited by Christopher Larkosh, 1–9. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Linder, Daniel
2014 “Getting away with Murder: The Maltese Falcon’s Specialized Homosexual Slang Gunned down in Translation.” Target: International Journal of Translation Studies 26 (3): 337–360.
Looking
. “Looking for Now,” “Looking for Uncut,” “Looking at your Browser History,” Episodes 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Created by Michael Lannan. United States: Fair Harbor Productions 2014.
Maier, Carol
2007 “The Translator as an Intervenient Being.” In Translation as Intervention, edited by Jeremy Munday, 1–17. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Martin, James R., and Peter R. R. White
2005 The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Merriam-Webster
s.v. “hot,” accessed 22 July 2018, [URL]
Munday, Jeremy
2012 Evaluation in Translation: Critical Points of Translator Decision-Making. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Pew Research Center
Pham, Loc
2011 “Translating Brokeback Mountain into Vietnamese Culture.” In Re-Engendering Translation: Transcultural Practice, Gender/Sexuality and the Politics of Alterity, edited by Christopher Larkosh, 111–126. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Ranzato, Irene
2012 “Gayspeak and Gay Subjects in Audiovisual Translation: Strategies in Italian Dubbing.” Meta 57 (2): 369–384.
Santaemilia, José
2015 “Translating Sex(uality) from English into Spanish and Vice-versa: A Cultural and Ideological Challenge.” Atlantis: Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies 37 (1): 139–156.
2017 “Traducir para la igualdad sexual: Hacia una ética activa y responsable” [Translating for sexual equality: Towards an active and responsible ethics]. In Traducir para la igualdad sexual: Translating for Sexual Equality, edited by José Santaemilia, 1–10. Granada: Comares.
Spurlin, William J.
2014 “Introduction: The Gender and Queer Politics of Translation: New Approaches.” Comparative Literature Studies 51 (2): 201–214.
Tymoczko, Maria
2003 “Ideology and the Position of the Translator: In What Sense is a Translator ‘In Between’?” In Apropos of Ideology: Translation Studies on Ideology-Ideologies in Translation Studies, edited by M. Calzada Pérez, 182–201. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Tyulenev, Sergey
2014 “Strategies of Translating Sexualities as Part of the Secularization of Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Russia.” Comparative Literature Studies 51 (2): 253–276.
Valdéon, Roberto
2010 “Schemata, Scripts and the Gay Issue in Contemporary Dubbed Sitcoms.” Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 22 (1): 71–93.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Villanueva-Jordán, Iván
2023. Audiovisual Translation, Multilingual Desire, and the Construction of the Intersectional Gay Male Body. Languages 8:2 ► pp. 105 ff. 
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 may 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.