Literature on Japanese-English subtitle translation

[Roger Macy]

Dear Claudia,
David has already mentioned your best starting point, Cinema Babel.  Marcus' thesis is, I suggest, more about the visibility of translation, then the visibility of translators.

I have been steadily accumulating material, from compromising correspondence on the translation of Eisenstein's films, to data on the visibility of translators on several hundred film screenings and video sales.  A proposal to present this with some critical commentary under the heading 'Film Translation as a Curatorial Issue' was rejected for the forthcoming SCMS, but I have now proposed this elsewhere, and hope springs eternal. But none of my work is about translation into Japanese, if that is your interest.  Perhaps we could chat?  Where (roughly) are you ?

I ask where, partly for practicalities, but also because English itself has many guises.  I think it's a moot point whether film translators are becoming more visible - certainly not at a cinemathecque near me - but the question of regional translation is particularly invisible.  And there is correspondence going back to the silent era on regional English difficulties.  It wasn't, by the way, until I was talking in a pub with Marcus that I discovered how Marcus pronounces 'Babel' (and, I think, vice versa).

By the way, do I take it that your AV stands for audio-visual and not 'adult' video, an area in which film translation research is erm.. pick your cliché .. not done yet.
Roger
(currently in Tunbridge Wells, England)
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Claudia Anderson 
  To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:19 PM
  Subject: Literature on Japanese-English subtitle translation


  Hi all,

  I am an undergraduate student researching the history and change of AV translation of Japanese cinema to English, predominantly focusing on subtitling, although I have yet to completely refine the direction of my dissertation. Does anyone know of any good literature (in English or Japanese) regarding the change and evolution of cinema, throughout the 20th century? Themes that would be ideal to explore would include the increasing 'visibility' of the translator, and how Japan has coped with a cinema industry which has been problematically monolingual. 

  Any help is much appreciated,

  Regards,

  Claudia Anderson
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