Ch 3

• Censorship


  Suppressing and modifying form and content, usually by the government or other patronage actors
• Manipulation


  Technical manipulation refers to changes made to the original text for technical reasons, while ideological manipulation has negative connotations and involves control or influence exerted in an unfair way
• Censorship has a constructive aspect as it not only suppresses information but also takes a position on moral behavior, political sympathies, and sexual orientations
• Censorship is used by both totalitarian and liberal governments to shape public consciousness
• Horizon of expectation

  Readers' expectations of style, form, and content in a translated text
• Manipulation (in translation)


  The way a text is produced by the translator, considering the expectations and interpretations of the new audience, as well as linguistic, textual, translational, and sociocultural norms
• Ideology and human randomness also play a role in shaping the new text
• Censorship is a deliberate act of suppressing and modifying form and content, usually by the government or other patronage actors in the case of audiovisual translation
• Comfort factor

  The degree of entertainment for the TV audience, which aligns with the expectations of broadcasters and viewers
• Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the founder of Futurism, campaigned against translations during the 1930s in Italy and believed that the amount of translated foreign books available was still too large
• A law gave the state authority to confiscate and examine publications

  1935
• Publishers were required to provide a list of their foreign works, starting a census of translations


  1938
• Censors were employed to alter dialogue in books, and in 1940, a law was passed to control the publication of translations, requiring explicit approval from the MINICULPOP
• The Catholic Church had already been practicing preventive censorship extensively before Mussolini and the Fascists came to power
• In May 1913, the Ufficio di revisione cinematografica was established to monitor and amend the content of silent films
• The Law of 25 June 1913 granted the state control over film content, and a censorship commission was instituted in May 1914
• The Regio Decreto-Legge of September 1923 became a significant document during the Fascist period and served as a reference for subsequent provisions
• The Law of 24 June 1929 increased the number of commission members from the ministries and the Fascist Party, aiming to have a better professional base with representatives from Istituto Luce and Enac for revising films
• in the late 1920s Italy prohibited the screening of foreign language
• from 1929 to 1931 film were muted
• The problem was eventually resolved when dubbing became technically viable in 1931
• The government then prohibited the importation of films dubbed outside of Italy, giving the censors control over modifying dialogues to align with their preferences
• US films, the majority of imports, were dubbed in a standardized Italian, contributing to the Fascist goal of cultural and linguistic homogenization
• The system of dubbing in fascist Italy aimed to protect the national identity and shield the public from foreign influence
• With Italy's involvement in war and Mussolini's weakening position, the debate on censorship began to shift towards a more liberal approach
• With no national film industry, Italy turned to Hollywood for entertainment and modernization, and American films flooded in, attracting investments and expanding distribution networks
• The Fascist state took its first step towards controlling the film industry in November 1925, when it nationalized Istituto Luce, responsible for producing news, propaganda, education, and cultural content for the domestic market
• Fascism struggled to establish a distinctive artistic style that broke away from tradition, focusing on consolidating power and neglecting intellectual and artistic fields in its early years
• The transition from silent to sound movies brought about a revolution in Italian society, both in terms of language and the influence of cinema
• Dubbed versions of foreign films in Italy gave birth to a standard Italian suitable for basic communication, rejecting dialects and regionalisms in favor of a more standardized language
• Neorealism used non-professional actors who spoke with accents and dialects, which was a reaction against the cultural policies of Fascism
• The use of dialects in dubbing only started in the 1970s with the film "The Godfather"
• Initially, dubbing aimed to imitate the vocal properties of the original voices, but after the 1970s, dubbing began to prioritize mimicking the original actors' vocal qualities
• In the past, film dubbing often featured a nasalized vocal style called "birignao" and perpetuated character stereotypes, but nowadays, cinema dubbing aims to choose actors who closely resemble the original actors to faithfully reproduce their voices
• Translators focus on semantic translation, while adapters are seen as freer from semantic constraints but bound by technical and synchronization constraints, often resulting in significant changes to the translations provided by translators
• Many adapters in Italy do not hold a translation degree and have acquired language proficiency informally, with some notable adapters not knowing the source language at all
• The adaptation process in Italy allows for creative freedom, and the profession has a unique history, with the "founding fathers" of adaptors being navy officers with extensive English proficiency
• In Italy, films must be submitted to the censorship commission at the Ministry for cultural heritage and activities and tourism for approval before distribution, while television policies are not as strictly regulated, leading to potential censorship and manipulation