Subtitling historical drama TV series: constraints and considerations

Abstract

Although there are a large number of books and articles on subtitling concentrating on different aspects of the endeavour, less attention seems to be devoted to the subtitling constraints and the possible strategies to be used in film and television series genres. For example, the subtitling of historical drama TV series, which have become very popular and reach a wide audience across the world, is a rarely studied endeavour. The following article is an effort to present a framework for the subtitlers of historical drama in consideration of the constraints of subtitling, as well as the features of the genre itself. Following an introduction about historical distance in translation, the linguistic, cultural and discoursal elements used in the production of the genre, the constraints of subtitling are exemplified with a comparative analysis of a historical drama and its subtitles into English. Particular attention is devoted to the translation strategies used in rendering registers and temporal and geographical varieties of language and, the strategies used to convey military, imperial, religious culture and social stratification. In conclusion, the study hopes to suggest points of practical use for subtitlers, concerning the subtitling of, what is explained in the study as, pseudo historical distance in historical drama and formulating a subtitling metatext.