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Aproximación a la traducción de referentes culturales en el ámbito audiovisual y literario / Approach to the translation of cultural references in the audiovisual and literary fields
Editado por Pedro Mogorrón Huerta, Lucía Navarro-Brotons y Iván Martínez-Blasco
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 45] 2025
► pp. 111–125

Translating sociolinguistic traces of urban youth culture in contemporary fiction

 | Centre for Anglophone Studies Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès
This paper examines the links between linguistic variety and cultural references in translation, positing that both serve to anchor a work of fiction in a specific time and place, and to provide information about the identity of their users. This idea is borne out in a discussion presenting typologies for the translation of cultural references and of slang, demonstrating how drawing links between these two translation issues may allow us to understand better the functions of implicit and explicit signs of cultural affiliation in the source text. Providing examples from texts set in and around Paris featuring slang, it will comment on the repercussions of implementing various methods used to translate linguistic variety and cultural references.
Keywords: slang, linguistic variety, subcultures, functional theories, youth speech
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Defining youth language and culture
    • 2.1Translating cultural references
    • 2.2Translating slang
  • 3.Translating (sub)culture and slang in practice: Case study
    • 3.1Specificity of the subgroup within the source culture
    • 3.2Broadening the audience
    • 3.3Parallels between subgroups
    • 3.4Transforming the slang
    • 3.5New slang
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Author queries
  • References
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References (10)
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