Two-step audio-description protocol : verbalising the science-fictional reality of "Summer Wars"

• Main Author: Deng, Yihan
• Other Authors: Helena Gao Hong
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Language
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72424
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Audio description (AD), as a branch of Audiovisual Translation (AVT), has largely been studied separately from the wider field of Translation Studies (TS). Through an integrated exercise comprising of both intersemiotic and interlingual translations, this paper seeks to bring the two fields closer by highlighting the overlapping and interchangeable features between AVT and TS, and summarising the issues and probable strategies in working within a Bidirectional 2-Step Translatorial Process (B2STP). Representing a holistic manner of translation, this integrated model focuses on consistency and coherence resulting from the creation of both English (source text, ST) and Chinese (target text, TT) AD scripts undertaken by the same translator (i.e. the author of this paper), and legitimizes the process of reverse translation. Adopting a bottom-up approach to the analysis of battle segments from Mamoru Hosoda’s award-winning Japanese animated film Summer Wars, starting with ST transmutation and transcription and not quite ending with TT translation and transmutation, the translational issues and specific techniques of deciphering the science fiction genre in the English-Chinese language pair are also discussed. The exploratory nature of this study sets the stage within TS for future empirical research into an integrated translatorial approach that may enhance the value of integrated translation and its practicability.