An Investigation of Thai Translations of English Cultural Realia in an Internet-based British Television Series Entitled Downton Abbey
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Abstract
This study investigates cultural realia translation strategies in Thai subtitles of an Internet-based British television series entitled Downton Abbey. The research was motivated by the fact that subtitling of cultural realia in English-language series into Thai is under-researched. To address this gap, the study is guided by four central research questions: (1) What are the types of cultural realia items and their corresponding target text subtitles found in Downton Abbey? (2) What are the types of local subtitling strategies employed in Downton Abbey? (3) What is the global subtitling strategy evident in Downton Abbey? and (4) What specific techniques does the translator/subtitler use to assert his or her identity? The study was aimed at systematically responding to these questions by (1) examining crucial challenges faced by subtitlers in the subtitling of English-language Internet-based series into Thai by exploring translation of realia as problematic translation units hindering audio-visual translation, (2) identifying effective micro-translation strategies, (3) ascertaining macro translation patterns of the whole target text, and (4) examining the extent to which transadaptation and transcreation disclose significant semantic traces and irregularities closely related to the subtitler’s construction of identities. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted in the study. The results indicated that twenty-four micro-translation solutions were adopted. The findings of this study make a significant contribution to the fields of audiovisual translation and cultural translation by providing a systematic classification of cultural realia in English–Thai subtitling, elucidating the inter-connection between local and global translation strategies, and highlighting the role of the subtitler’s agency in shaping meaning under multimodal constraints. Furthermore, the study offers pedagogical and practical insights for translators, subtitlers, and researchers by proposing context-sensitive strategies for rendering culturally bound elements, thereby advancing scholarly understanding of cross-cultural mediation in audiovisual media.
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