Book Reviews
Jorge Díaz Cintas and Aline Remael. Subtitling: Concepts and Practices. London, UK: Routledge, 2021. 292p. Paper, $46.95 (ISBN: 9781138940543).
Subtitling: Concepts and Practices provides an approachable praxis for subtitling film and the history and philosophies behind those practices. The intended audience is translators or students creating subtitles for foreign language films. The book was published in conjunction with a companion website that provides additional exercises and access to a subtitling program. Audiovisual translation and subtitling as a focus of academic study is a relatively recent development, and the authors are careful to date and explain subtitling practices, pointing out where there is relative consensus around a method of subtitling. The core of the text argues that subtitling is ultimately always contextual. The length and formatting of a subtitle for a single scene depends on genre, the semiotics in the scene itself, the language of the source text, and the pace of the dialogue. Throughout the chapters there are clear, concise, and detailed examples of subtitling practice using lines from popular domestic and international films that make the text approachable and relevant. The companion site, accessible with the purchase of the book, provides files for additional questions, examples, and links to additional resources, which are organized chapter by chapter.
The book begins by outlining the relationship between academic linguistic research and film industry practice, the history of subtitling, and by identifying regional norms. Until the mid to late 20th century, subtitling as a topic of academic inquiry was fairly limited, despite the impact translation has had on the reception of film throughout cinematic history. The authors credit part of this lag to very narrow definitions of translation, which originally excluded subtitling for film and intralingual captioning. The style and time spent on subtitles can really vary depending on the type of work being subtitled and who the perceived intended audience is. Subtitling or captioning is received differently in different countries and in some online communities, where participating in creating subtitles or capturing live audience reactions are celebrated parts of that media.
Chapters 3 through 8 discuss the many elements that are considered to make subtitling decisions. Subtitlers need to be mindful to not hinder the viewing experience through poor timing of the subtitled text and ensuring that the volume of text on screen does not obscure the image. The authors point out throughout these chapters that the standard of the production company, subtitling company, and the desired intended audience are often given more weight than trying to make the impossible “perfect” translation. Chapter 9 provides a brief overview of the transition of subtitling programs to cloud-based systems and recent efforts to integrate machine translation and translation memory into workflows.
This book is explicitly intended for subtitling for foreign languages, but the text could be a starting point for individuals who are interested in understanding methods of subtitling in general and want to conform to known standards, even if they are providing intralingual subtitles. The evidence provided for coalescing a relative subtitling standard is robust and based primarily in contemporary research. As video on demand content exponentially expands, subtitling and captioning are becoming increasingly standard. Netflix’s approach to creating foreign language subtitles is nearly omnipresent throughout the book. Beyond translating, the authors provide evidence that subtitles aligning with their model can aid comprehension because of the way subtitles and captions are becoming increasingly commonplace. Though the field lacks standards for evaluating the quality of subtitled materials, the reader is empowered by research paired with useful examples from contemporary film to make informed judgments of subtitled video. That background knowledge can inform an educator’s ability to judge the quality of subtitled video being shared with a group, or to determine whether films in an existing library collection are recommended by language learning websites discussed in the text.
Authors Díaz Cintas and Remael include accessibility and subtitling for people who are D/deaf or hard-of-hearing (SDH) and audio description as a part of the operational definition of “audiovisual translation.” The book provides a very helpful overview of the prominence SDH is given globally and specifically mentions corporations that integrate SDH into their programming. However, the book notes that SDH is a very underresearched field and can be excluded from translation studies, impacted by the fact that it has been excluded as a form of translation by some. There are other indicators that SDH is not fully integrated into standard translation practice. For example, SDH often relies on colored text to indicate the speaker, but average subtitles are presented in white or yellow. Occasionally it is necessary to parse through what is a suggestion that may work for SDH and what may not. Library workers considering taking on subtitling may want to look for resources specific to SDH subtitling for greater specificity.
This book may not meet the needs for someone focusing specifically on audiovisual historiographies. Although Subtitling frequently refers to the documentary genre, its focus is on films created to entertain audiences. The text suggests that the subtitler is removed from the creation of the audiovisual content and is written as if the end viewer is an average movie-watcher. There is no specific reference to research on providing subtitling for oral histories or archival footage. This may be great reference material for preparing a public screening of archival footage, but it may not be suitable to inform other archival work.
Subtitling: Concepts and Practices is a good starting place for anyone interested in subtitling regardless of their interests in translation or for someone interested in having an informed perspective while evaluating foreign language films, regardless of their prior familiarity with the concepts. It provides detailed examples of best practices and pitfalls using accessibility and comprehension as a baseline of success. Readers will find the writing approachable and backed by linguistic research and walk away with the tools to start subtitling themselves or to understand foreign language film with new depth.—Elizabeth Davis, Independent Scholar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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