Cover not available
Article published In:
Translaboration: Exploring Collaboration in Translation and Translation in Collaboration
Edited by Alexa Alfer and Cornelia Zwischenberger
[Target 32:2] 2020
► pp. 217–238

Translaboration in a film context

Stanley Kubrick’s collaborative approach to translation

ORCID logo | Roma Tre University
This study explores the notion of translaboration in the context of audiovisual translation using Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987) as a case study. Specifically, it explores the dynamics of translaboration in the Italian version of Kubrick’s film by drawing on archival methods and sources to examine the material traces left by the translation process. The study aims to unveil the translaborative dimension that characterized Kubrick’s approach to film translation, pointing to the specificity of a collaborative interaction in which one participant holds ultimate authority. Findings gleaned from translation-related material in the Stanley Kubrick Archive (University of the Arts, London) are combined with insights from working documents found among the personal papers of Riccardo Aragno, who translated Kubrick’s last five films into Italian for both dubbing and subtitling. Archival documents show that Kubrick was involved in collaborative work with his translators, sometimes adopting an interventionist approach.
Keywords: Stanley Kubrick, dubbing, subtitling, collaborative translation, archives
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Translaboration in film translation
  • 3.Translaboration and archival-genetic methods
  • 4.Exploring translaborative dynamics through archival sources: The case of Full Metal Jacket
    • 4.1The study
    • 4.2Collaborative dynamics in the Italian dubbed version of Full Metal Jacket
      • 4.2.1Finding a title
      • 4.2.2Discussing translation solutions
  • 5.Conclusions: Translaboration or forced collaboration?
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20077.zan
References (60)
References
Filmography
Kubrick, Stanley. 1971. A Clockwork Orange. UK and USA: Polaris Production, Hawk Films.Google Scholar
. 1987. Full Metal Jacket. USA and UK: Hawk Films.Google Scholar
Zierra, Tony. 2017. Filmworker. USA: Dogwoof.Google Scholar
Archival sources
Continuity and Spotting List. Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/4/2/12.
Audiocassette, Scotch 6090m. Riccardo Aragno Papers. Private collection.
, Sony HF 60. Riccardo Aragno Papers. Private collection.
, Sony HF 120. Riccardo Aragno Papers. Private collection.
Corrected subtitles. Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/4/2/19.
Final dubbing script. Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/8/6/13.
French subtitles. Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/4/2/17.
Italian subtitles – first draft. Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/5/3/42.
Italian dubbing script – first draft. Full Metal Jacket. The Stanley Kubrick Archive. The University of the Arts, London. SK/16/4/2/19.
Other references
Alfer, Alexa. 2015. “Transcending Boundaries.” The Linguist 54 (5): 26–27.Google Scholar
. 2017. “Entering the Translab: Translation as Collaboration, Collaboration as Translation, and the Third Space of ‘Translaboration’.” In Translaboration, edited by Alexa Alfer, special issue of Translation and Translanguaging in Multicultural Contexts 3 (3): 275–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anokhina, Olga. 2017. “Vladimir Nabokov and His Translators: Collaboration or Translating under Duress?” In Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age, edited by Anthony Cordingley and Céline Frigau Manning, 111–129. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Aragno, Riccardo. 1999. Interview with GR Rai, 12 March. Accessed January 2, 2020. [URL]
Bollettieri, Rosa Maria, and Serenella Zanotti. 2017. “The Avant-textes of Translations: A Study of Umberto Eco’s Interaction with His Translators.” Translation Studies 10 (3): 263–281. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ciment, Michel. 2001. Kubrick: The Definitive Edition. Translated by Gilbert Adair. New York: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Cordingley, Anthony, and Céline Frigau Manning, eds. 2017. Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Cordingley, Anthony, and Chiara Montini, eds. 2015. Towards a Genetics of Translation. Special issue of Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 141.Google Scholar
De los Reyes Lozano, Julio. 2015. “Genética del doblaje cinematográfico: La versión del traductor como proto-texto en el filme Rio .” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 141: 149–167.Google Scholar
De Higes Andino, Irene. 2014. “The Translation of Multilingual Films: Modes, Strategies, Constraints and Manipulation in the Spanish Translations of It’s a free world…” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 131: 211–231.Google Scholar
Díaz-Cintas, Jorge. 2001. “Striving for Quality in Subtitling: The Role of a Good Dialogue List.” In (Multi)Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research, edited by Yves Gambier and Henrik Gottlieb, 199–211. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Cintas, Jorge, and Aline Remael. 2007. Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar
Di Giovanni, Elena. 2016. “The Layers of Subtitling.” Cogent Arts & Humanities 3 (1): 1–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eisenschitz, Bernard. 1999. “La parole écrite: Extrait des mémoires d’un traducteur.” In L’image et la parole, edited by Jacques Aumont, 29–45. Paris: Cinémathèque Française.Google Scholar
. 2013. “Sous-titrage mon beau souci: Notes sur une pratique.” Mise au point, 51. [URL]. DOI logo
Hersant, Patrick. 2017. “Author-Translator Collaborations: A Typological Survey”. In Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age, edited by Anthony Cordingley and Céline Frigau Manning, 91–110. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Heymann, Danièle. 1987. “Le Vietnam de Stanley Kubrick: Un entretien avec le réalisteur de Full Metal Jacket .” Le Monde, 20 October.Google Scholar
. 2005. “Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam.” In The Stanley Kubrick Archives, edited by Alison Castle, 476–479. Hong Kong: Taschen.Google Scholar
Jansen, Hanne, and Anna Wegener. 2013. “Multiple Translatorship.” In Authorial and Editorial Voices in Translation 1: Collaborative Relationships Between Authors, Translators, and Performers, edited by Hanne Jansen and Anna Wegener, 1–38. Montreal, QC: Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, collection Vita Traductiva.Google Scholar
Krämer, Peter. (2015). “‘Complete total final annihilating artistic control’: Stanley Kubrick and Postwar Hollywood.” In Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives, edited by Tatjana Ljujic, Peter Krämer, and Richard Daniels, 48–61. London: Black Dog.Google Scholar
Letawe, Céline. 2017. “Günter Grass and His Translators: From a Collaborative Dynamic to an Apparatus of Control?” In Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age, edited by Anthony Cordingley and Céline Frigau Manning, 130–144. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Massidda, Serenella. 2015. Audiovisual Translation in the Digital Age: The Italian Fansubbing Phenomenon. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matamala, Anna. 2010. “Translations for Dubbing as Dynamic Texts: Strategies in Film Synchronization.” Babel 56 (2): 101–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McAvoy, Catriona. 2015. “Creating The Shining: Looking beyond the Myths.” In Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives, edited by Tatjana Ljujić, Peter Krämer, and Richard Daniels, 282–307. London: Black Dog.Google Scholar
McQuiston, Kate. 2013. We’ll Meet Again: Musical Design in the Films of Stanley Kubrick. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mendes, Regina. 2015. “Dubbing Directors and Dubbing Actors: Co-authors of Translation for Dubbing.” In Audiovisual Translation in a Global Context, edited by Rocío Baños Piñero and Jorge Díaz-Cintas, 253–265. Palgrave Macmillan: London.Google Scholar
Molina Foix, Vicente. 1999. “El artista maniático.” El País, 8 March. Accessed August 21, 2018. [URL]
. 2005. “El Director Exquisito.” El País, 6 March. Accessed August 21, 2018. [URL]
Munday, Jeremy. 2012. Evaluation in Translation: Critical Points of Translator Decision-Making. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Naremore, James. 2006. “Stanley Kubrick and the Aesthetics of the Grotesque.” Film Quarterly 60 (1): 4–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nornes, Abe M. 2007. Cinema Babel: Translating Global Cinema. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon. 2011. “Collaborative Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 21, edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, 17–20. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orrego-Carmona, David, and Yvonne Lee, eds. 2017. Non-Professional Subtitling. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Palmer, William. 1995. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Richart-Marset, Mabel. 2014. “La caja negra y el mal de archivio: defense de un análisis genético del doblaje cinematográfico.” In Última tendencias en la investigación sobre traducción para el doblaje, edited by Rocío Baños Piñero, special issue of TRANS: Revista de traductología 171: 51–69.Google Scholar
Romero-Fresco, Pablo. 2013. “Accessible Filmmaking: Joining the Dots between Audiovisual Translation, Accessibility, and Filmmaking.” Journal of Specialised Translation 201: 201–223.Google Scholar
. 2014. “Accessible Filmmaking.” Accessed January 2, 2020. [URL]
. 2018. The Accessible Filmmaking Guide. London: BFI.Google Scholar
. 2019. Accessible Filmmaking: Integrating Translation and Accessibility into the Filmmaking Process. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seddon, Emma. 2019. “Exploring the Social Complexity of Translation with Assemblage Thinking.” In Complexity Thinking in Translation Studies: Methodological Considerations, edited by Kobus Marais and Reine Meylaerts, 104–127. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Turquety, Benoît. 2015. “Orality and Objectification: Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, Filmmakers and Translators.” SubStance 44 (2): 47–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Whitman-Linsen, Candace. 1992. Through the Dubbing Glass: The Synchronization of American Motion Pictures into German, French and Spanish. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Woods, Michelle. 2006. Translating Milan Kundera. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zanotti, Serenella. 2014. “Translation and Transcreation in the Dubbing Process: A Genetic Approach.” Cultus: The Journal of Intercultural Mediation and Communication 71: 107–132.Google Scholar
. 2019a. “Investigating the Genesis of Translated Films: A View from the Stanley Kubrick Archive.” Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice 27 (2): 201–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2019b. “Auteur Dubbing: Translation, Performance and Authorial Control in the Dubbed Versions of Stanley Kubrick’s Films.” In Reassessing Dubbing: Historical Approaches and Current Trends, edited by Irene Ranzato and Serenella Zanotti, 79–100. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Sarıgül, Semih
2023. Online Translaboration in Video Game Localisation. In Translaboration in Analogue and Digital Practice [Transkulturalität – Translation – Transfer, 57], ► pp. 53 ff. DOI logo
Silvester, Hannah
2022. Working conditions and collaborative practices in the translation of French film: subtitling banlieue cinema. Perspectives 30:3 ► pp. 399 ff. DOI logo
Valdeón, Roberto A.
2022. Latest trends in audiovisual translation. Perspectives 30:3 ► pp. 369 ff. DOI logo
Dai, Yun-fang
2021. Power imbalance in translaboration: a perspective from Chinese translation history. Neohelicon 48:2 ► pp. 599 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 september 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.