Transferring the unfamiliar in Russian and Greek AVT

The study examines transfer strategies in identity construction instances, in Greek and Russian audio-visual translation (AVT) modalities (subtitling and dubbing), of the English animated film for children, The Rise of the Guardians (2012). It explores whether and how translator awareness of target cultural background may affect the strategies used in the transfer. Results suggest that the level of un/familiarity of a target culture with a source-text (ST) cultural item affects the translation strategies across English-Russian and English-Greek differently, on the basis of preferred politeness orientations (negative and positive, respectively) prevailing in the target environments. Testimonies of film viewers and questionnaire respondents who are unfamiliar with the cultural items confirm aspects of the analysis. The significance of the research lies in that it provides further insight into the way Greek and Russian AVT practices handle and transform English audio-visual unfamiliar entities, which may advance understanding of cross-cultural processes in AVT.