The Boys in the Band : Linguistic and aesthetic nostalgia in translation

Antonio Jesús Martínez Pleguezuelos and Iván Villanueva-Jordán
Complutense University of Madrid | Peruvian University of Applied Sciences

Abstract

This article analyzes the Spanish dubbed version and English-language version of Netflix’s recent adaptation of The Boys in the Band (Mantello 2020), which was initially a theater play by Crowley (1968), and compares it with the first English-language film adaptation (Friedkin 1970), also dubbed into Spanish. The concept of nostalgia is used here to analyze the resemiotization of different audiovisual modes (particularly cinematography) and how they are combined with the linguistic code to reimagine the narrative of the homosexual community in New York at the end of the 1960s. The English versions of the two films (released in 1970 and 2020) repeat the dialogues almost verbatim; however, the versions dubbed into Spanish offer different translation solutions. The time of production of both dubbed versions accounts for the viability of the expression of different sexual identities in the Spanish context at each moment. Based on this, the article reveals how the audiovisual modes of the latest version of The Boys in the Band, including its Spanish dubbing, contribute to nostalgic aesthetics and discursive representation of the emerging cultural and social gay American scene.

Keywords:
Publication history

Date received: 21 September 2021

Date accepted: 23 June 2023

Published online: 20 July 2023

Table of contents

Given the ubiquity of media representations of globalized gay/lesbian identities (Altman 1997, 418), as well as the localized responses from international queer communities, translation acts both as a means of expanding content beyond linguistic borders and as an analytical tool for the media(tized) discourses impacting subjects and their sense of self. This article presents a contrastive analysis of The Boys in the Band films released in 1970 and 2020 (and their Spanish dubbed versions) as cases in which the streaming aesthetics – particularly evident in Netflix productions – exploit the symbolic density of the past for the creation of entertainment products. More specifically, the analysis focuses on nostalgia from the perspective of Translation Studies.

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