2. SUBTITLING

 

Packing all the ideas and their finest

nuances into two lines is damn diffic

� Ivarsson (1992: front cover)

 

First, it is useful to consider the nature of our exercise. How do we define subtitling? Is it possible to apply translation theories to subtitling, and if yes, to what extent? Is there anything else apart from translation theory that could prove useful?

 

The volume of study concerning subtitling for television is surprisingly small. I managed to find very few published sources on the subject and a mere handful of comments stating and/or regretting this state of affairs^[1]. A bibliography (Gambier 1994) on the subject of language transfer and audiovisual communication lists a fair amount of material on dubbing and translating for the hearing impaired, but 'ordinary' subtitling for the general public is clearly in the minority. On the other hand, the bibliography confirmed my assumption that film and TV translation has become an increasingly popular subject in MA theses during the last few years, which would suggest a growing interest toward it.

 

What is subtitling? Jan Ivarsson does not regard subtitling as a form of translation at all: "Translation is a different art. I first considered naming this book A Handbook of Written Simultaneous Interpretation, for subtitling is very close to the work of a conference interpreter, which is to give the audience a simultaneous translation of what is being said" (Ivarsson 1992: 7-8).

 

An opposite view is presented by Reiss and Vermeer. They see correctability as the decisive criterion for translation and interpretation. Correctability is characteristic for translation: after the translator has translated, both the ST and the TT are still there in order for the translator to improve her/his work later. Interpretation does not allow this, ad hoc corrections during the interpreting process excluded. The interpreter cannot return to the text to improve her/his performance. (Reiss & Vermeer 1986: 10-11.)

 

Personally, I prefer the idea of interpreting as a spoken form of communication covering a given time span i.e. the process of interpretation, whereas written communication that can be corrected and improved later on, including subtitling, would fall in the category of translation. Admittedly, Ivarsson's view might seem true from the point of view of the audience, as they receive the subtitles 'simultaneously', together with the original visual and auditory elements. However, from the subtitler's point of view this simultaneousness is an illusion: when subtitling, correctability is an option available for the translator.

 

To argue about this, however, is hardly the point here; not altogether unlike other academic fields of study, translation theory sometimes seems to be arguing about labels instead of doing something worthwhile to improve the actual work carried out by real translators. This is why I would like to leave terminology disputes outside this work.

 

The apparent lack of academic interest toward subtitling would seem pretty surprising considering the pervasive nature of television in Joe Average's life. Our Finnish or Nordic view may, however, distort the overall picture; a vast majority of us encounters subtitles on a regular basis but subtitles are merely a minor phenomenon in countries with a large population and/or productive film and television industries. Even countries that import a lot of films and television programmes do not necessarily resort to subtitles. Despite the fact that subtitling is said to be ten times cheaper and much faster than dubbing (Brondeel 1994:27; cf. Aaltonen 1995), the latter is the preferred technique in Germany, Spain, Italy, France and many other major-language countries in Europe. As far as films are concerned, one could say � with a touch of sarcasm, admittedly � that the American entertainment industry tends to go one step further and come up with remakes of potentially successful European films (Three Men and a Baby, to name but one, is of French origin) for the American cinemagoers. Thus, even if television is a very familiar medium to Joe Average, it is Matti and Maija Meik�l�inen who have a lot more experience when it comes to subtitles.

 

My intention here is not to argue about the superiority of subtitling versus dubbing. As a brief comment on this, Joseph Boggs summarises the aesthetic and artistic pros of subtitling: "Perhaps most importantly, [subtitling] does not interfere with the illusion of reality to the same degree as dubbing, even though the appearance of writing at the bottom of the screen is not completely natural to the film medium. Because the actors are not separated from their voices, their performances seem more real and human, as well as more powerful. Furthermore, by retaining the voices of the actors speaking in their native language, the subtitled film keeps the power, character, and unique emotional quality of the culture that produced it. The importance of this last point cannot be overestimated." (Boggs 1991: 375.) In our case the actors just happen to be yellow cartoon characters with four fingers in each hand but this does not undermine the value of Boggs' statement. In addition, if we consider the educational point of view, in the long run subtitling has a favourable effect on the language skills of the audience^[2].

 

Another reason for the apparent lack of interest in subtitling is very probably the rather an inferior status television has had. The reason behind this, according to Fiske, the distinctive textual characteristics of television. These characteristics "have derived from and are inserted into a popular culture in which orality plays a central role. Television is so often treated as an inferior cultural medium with inferior textual characteristics because our culture is one that validates the literary, or rather the literate, and consequently devalues the oral." (Fiske 1987: 105.)

 

It may be a slight exaggeration that television, particularly compared with literature, is often seen as a device offering brainless entertainment for brainless masses. Still, this has had its effect on the subtitlers, too. Few would deny the claim that the work of subtitlers is clearly underrated^[3]. Everyone 'knows' that subtitlers never get the facts right (particularly numbers, for no apparent reason), they always uncannily omit the most important bits of dialogue, and so on. According to Ivarsson (1992: 75), this kind of criticism is directed principally at television translators.

 

From a translator's point of view television is a very demanding medium. Mason states that while "most people have relatively little awareness of the effects of translation on their non-professional everyday life", television together with the cinema are the areas "where translating tends to impinge upon receivers' consciousness in a way that cannot be ignored" (Mason 1989: 13). Television is a popular medium and, for the general public, subtitles are one of the most visible forms of translation. The ST is there for everyone to see and hear, and both mistakes and 'mistakes'^[4] are easy to spot. Says Ivarsson: "A guess or a careless translation never goes unnoticed. There are always experts in that particular field and people who know the language in the audience, and many of these love putting things to rights" (1992: 74). The subtitler is, indeed, always out in the open for the audience to criticise.

 

Scorned or not, in general television reaches an audience far larger than literature. There are very few books that ever reach as many people as most television programmes do. In a way, a translator of literature enjoys a lot safer position than a subtitler.

 

Compared with cinema, too, television is a major medium. A relatively successful film is seen by 2% or so of the population; a relatively successful television programme by at least ten times that figure (Ivarsson 1992: 75). These figures are not that different from the Finnish point of view, either. Consequently, TV translators are targets for criticism more often than their colleagues, and, consequently, TV translators should naturally be extremely competent in their work. Or as Ivarsson (1992: 73) puts it: "subtitlers, perhaps even more than other translators, must know and understand everything." A job well done is good publicity both for the profession in general and the subtitler her/himself.

 

The task of the subtitler is even more difficult when a quality series is concerned. Although quality is a concept that in many cases easily evades attempts for definition, Betsy Williams points out that according to numerous television critics there are "series that exemplify 'quality': among them Cheers, Murphy Brown, Brooklyn Bridge, Northern Exposure, Homefront, and The Simpsons" (Williams 1994: 141). Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly has few reservations in his appraisal of The Simpsons: "In its constant acknowledgment of history, current events, and forms of art and entertainment other than television, The Simpsons is probably the most realistically surreal cartoon series ever; the show is always striving not only to be funnier but also tighter, more precise in its sarcasm, and (in its own brusquely unsentimental way) more moving" (Tucker 1993). This comment illuminates the value of cultural literacy when both subtitling and watching the series.

 

I believe it is fair to say that The Simpsons is a cult series, too. Judging by the amount and ingredients of contributions to the Internet newsgroup alt.tv.simpsons, the comedy is taken very seriously by its loyal audience. In a case like this I believe subtitles are even more prone for criticism than usually^[5]. And, again taking the very pragmatic approach to the issue, too much criticism might well wake up the commissioner of the translation; from the translator's point of view bad publicity is obviously bad for business.

 

Irrespective of whether one sees The Simpsons as a quality and/or cult series or not, it is undeniably a major phenomenon. It is the longest-running prime time cartoon series in the US television ever, and in May 1998, Time magazine ranked Bart Simpson among the 20 most important and influential artists and entertainers of the 20th century, together with the likes of Joyce, Chaplin, Picasso, Stravinsky and The Beatles^[6]. These notions certainly do not make the translator's task any easier.

 

Does translation theory provide a helping hand for the subtitler? While Heinonen (1995: 76) emphasises the need to consider subtitling as a separate species of translation (cf. Hatim and Mason 1990: 2), most theories fail to pay any attention to it, apart from the occasional appearance in typologies.

 

Reiss and Vermeer (1986: 80) recognise the special, intersemiotic nature of subtitling. They regard it as a form of translation where the ST is interpreted as a whole but some modifications are needed to produce the TT. Subtitling is included in Reiss' concept of audio-medial text type where written texts occur "in communicative acts together with 'texts' of other signs, where the texts in the different sign systems have been produced to relate to each other in a constant way. The written language is supplemented and accompanied by 'texts' in 'language' of music or pictures." (Reiss 1989: 111.)

 

The subtitler must pay attention to the interplay of these elements in the TT. Heinonen (1995: 74) regards this duality of what is being seen and heard as the basis of film translation, stating that "neither the soundtrack nor the filmstrip can be read independently without afflicting the total sum of meanings" (Cf. Reiss 1989: 111). Subtitles, sound and picture must form an understandable, purposeful audiovisual totality. (Landstr�m 1991: 111; Heinonen 1995: 74.)

 

While Reiss and Vermeer (1986) typologise all texts as belonging to three basic text types based on three basic communicative situations � informative, expressive and operative � Reiss admits that the special requirements of the audio-medial text type take precedence over the basic text type, but that these requirements do not diminish the validity of the basic types (Reiss 1989: 11). This claim is supported by Landstr�m, who concludes that the basic text types and the 'skopos' theory of Reiss and Vermeer can be applied to television programmes, too. Having defined the target audience, the translator then chooses the translation strategy keeping in mind the basic text type and the function of the programme to achieve optimal results. (Landstr�m 1991: 112.)

 

It would seem that, while these theories admittedly offer some useful items to the subtitler's checklist � the totality of text, sound and picture probably being the most important one � a single set of rules does not exist. In fact, the underlying assumption behind the 'skopos' theory might prove to be the most useful rule of them all, i.e. in translation the end justifies the means (Reiss and Vermeer 1986: 58).

 

However, even if theory acknowledges their existence, the exact nature of the TT audience and the function of the text, for example, are up to the subtitler to figure out in each individual case. And if translation studies really exist in the area between disciplines, it is only appropriate to look for useful information in other sources, too. Dirk Delabastita states that the "study of film translation appears to require an interdisciplinary effort, including specific contributions by film and TV professionals, psychologists and psycholinguists, mass-communication experts, phoneticians, sociolinguists, film semioticians and translation scholars" (Delabastita 1990: 99; emphasis mine). By no means do I claim expertise in these fields, but for this thesis I have attempted to gather useful notions from people who do, as far as these are helpful from the subtitler's point of view.

 

 

2.1 THE TASK AND THE SKILLS NEEDED

 

I assume that all translation is partly science, partly craft, partly art, partly a matter of taste.

� Newmark (1988: 189)

 

What do translators do when they are subtitling, and what is required of them? Mason (1989: 14) has divided the main problems involved into three categories: shift in mode (from speech to writing), physical constraints (available space, speed of sound-track dialogue), and reduction of ST into more concise TT.

 

Concise is clearly the operative word in subtitling. Reductions are inevitable but readability should not suffer because of this; inexperienced subtitlers "tend to produce telegraphese, or complex nominalisations in an attempt to cram in all the information" (Brondeel 1994: 28). Yet, Ivarsson demands that the standard of accuracy must be high: "Translations simply must be correct, and omissions as few as possible within the constraints of the inexorable 'time limits'". Still, a subtitler cannot resort to a long explanatory translation or a footnote, nor can s/he ignore the problem altogether, as the ST is always there. (Ivarsson 1992: 77.)

 

Boggs was eager to point out the pros of subtitling^[7], but he attacks its cons just as eagerly by claiming that "most subtitles are so concise that they are oversimplified and incomplete. They are designed to convey only the most basic level of meaning and do not even attempt to capture the full flavor and quality of the dialogue in the original language." (Boggs 1991: 376). This is surely not the kind of comment one wants to hear concerning one's own work. Still, something has got to go, and it is the subtitler who is in charge of this semantic cleansing. What is required of a subtitler to complete this task without provoking comments like those above?

 

Ivarsson illustrates the key problem of subtitling in terms of quantity: one person can easily deliver several times as many words as fit in the subtitles, let alone several people speaking at the same time. The dialogue has to be condensed, and the processes of selecting what to translate and what to leave out are undoubtedly the most difficult elements of the art, and, according to Ivarsson, mastering them is what distinguishes a good subtitler from a bad one. (Ivarsson 1992: 90-91.)

 

Based on her empirical material, Landstr�m states that TV subtitles are condensed information with low redundancy and high semantic accuracy, even though all irrelevant information and meaningless expressions have been omitted (Landstr�m 1991: 115). In my opinion, Landstr�m is a bit too eager to justify these omissions. After all, what is irrelevant? First of all, the concept is very subjective. Second, is a given section of text irrelevant if it does not seem to advance the plot, as Landstr�m (1991: 113-114) claims? I cannot help wondering what kind of TT this strategy � or attitude, rather � would produce in a Woody Allen film, or in the TV series Seinfeld, in which "nothing happens" and idle chat is quintessential. The Simpsons features masses of details that are there just for the overall flavour, that indefinable je ne sais quoi, and I fail to see how these could be omitted on the basis of what appears to be essential to the plot. This, once again, demonstrates the value of professionalism as opposed to strict rules. Heinonen suggests that, in general, the relevance of a given section of text is based on understanding the action, the visual elements and the speech: how important a given item is for these, and would the scene be interpreted in a different way were this item omitted (Heinonen 1995: 66).

 

There is also the concept of quality. As mentioned in 1.1, expertise is required from the translator both in the languages and the cultures in question. Aaltonen specifies this by highlighting the value of native speaker competence, the skill to produce text in one's own mother tongue. In short, the subtitler must be an expert in communication. (Aaltonen 1994: 112-113.)

 

Nieminen requires the subtitler of situation comedies^[8] to possess a creative imagination as strong as would be needed if one was to translate poetry. The subtitler is expected to make the viewer laugh, and the presence of puns and culture-related jokes does not make the task any easier. (Nieminen 1990: 59). The subtitler cannot 'simply' translate, s/he must clearly step into the role of an author.

 

"Learn to be suspicious" is a useful piece of advice offered by Ivarsson (1992: 78). He urges the subtitler to ask her/himself whether a given piece of text really means what the subtitler thinks it means and whether it is logical, since one should always assume that the speaker means something. He recommends suspecting strange expression as these may be quotations or allusions (Ivarsson 1992: 78). Leppihalme elaborates this point by stating that a translator needs to be aware of what forms an allusion can take and how allusiveness is signalled in the source culture. In addition, the translator must know the source of the allusion and its connotations for native speakers. Recognition and analysis are "a prerequisite for a conscious consideration of translation strategies for allusions." (Leppihalme 1994: 70, 75.)

 

Nevertheless, even if the subtitler is expected to deliver her/his part of the deal as far as quality and quantity are concerned, the reader is not exempt of all responsibility. Mason points out that the task of the subtitler is not to represent all of the linguistically encoded meaning in the ST, but to summarise the ST. The meaning is to be retrieved by a process of matching this summary with visual perception of the action on screen, including paralinguistic features such as body language. (Mason 1989: 18.) This brings us back to the audiovisual totality: the skill to create it in the form of the TT, and the skill to read this. The subtitler is expected to master the way sound, images and written text work together, but as Mason's comment demonstrates, it is the viewer who retrieves the meaning out of this totality. Says Brondeel: "[C]omprehension involves two skills simultaneously: active TL reading and passive SL listening, even if the viewer does not understand SL" (Brondeel 1994: 28), and continues by reminding us of the relevant auditory and visual information involved. Johnsson (1996: 71) points out that, in the end, it is the viewer's competence as a receptor that determines how the culture-related information in the visuals is transmitted.

 

Cultural competence appears to be a recurring theme in the requirements set for both a good subtitler and a 'good' viewer. This becomes more obvious when one looks through Dirk Delabastita's (1990: 102-103) checklist of factors to which a subtitler should pay special attention. Several of these are directly or indirectly connected to the cultural skills of the subtitler. This connection is obvious in items such as rendering of literary allusions and of various cultural data^[9], but, to name but one example, rendering of taboo elements requires knowledge of both the source and the target culture in order to define the concept of taboo in the first place. In addition, Delabastita suggests that the prestige of both the source and the target culture in international context, and the nature of relations between these cultures has an effect on the process of subtitling (ibid. 103).

 

What is interesting from the point of view of this study is the way Delabastita emphasises the importance of genre (see 4.1 and 6.2). He points out the possible introduction of genre markers � stereotyped elements that conform the target film to the target audience's expectations � as one of the factors requiring special attention. The subtitler should not merely recognise the genre of the ST, but to know whether the genre exists in the target culture, and whether the models of the ST (linguistic, stylistic, cultural, filmic) find a counterpart in it. (Delabastita 1990: 103.)

 

By now it should be obvious that the individual qualities of the subtitler are crucial in the process of subtitling. As this may sound like stating the obvious, I will happily allow Reiss and Vermeer clarify the statement with a few illustrating notions: the competence of the subtitler varies both from one subtitler to another and from one assignment to another; the ability to understand the ST varies as each subtitler possesses different analytic and hermeneutic skills; the way a subtitler interprets the qualities of the content and the form of the text may be subjective, and so on. (Reiss and Vermeer 1986: 85). Personally I would go a step further in this last point, and deny the illusion of objectivity altogether.

 

To conclude, the process of subtitling is neither automatic nor dictated by definite rules. It is the subtitler who is responsible for the result, the one to blame � and to praise. The subtitler cannot rely on a single set of infallible norms and instructions, while a checklist based on the findings of theorists and the observations of practitioners of the trade is likely to improve the result.

 

 

2.2 THE TECH aspect

 

There are obvious technical restrictions concerning subtitling for TV. These subjects have been dealt with in detail in several studies (see Ivarsson 1992 etc.), and most of them are beyond the scope and purpose of this work.

 

It does not take a sage to predict that there will be changes concerning the nature of translating for media in the future; some of these may occur sooner than we expect. Digital technology, for example, makes it possible to offer several translations for the viewers. However, for the purposes of this study I have taken for granted that, using the technology available today, there is a limited number of characters per line, and a given piece of text must remain on the screen for a certain length of time to allow the so-called average viewer to read all of it. Positioning, cueing time codes and other routines that are part of the work of a subtitler have been excluded.

 

Due to the technical nature of the medium, the subtitler is forced to consider matters about which a translator of a printed text need not worry. Delabastita (1990: 101) lists four types of "film sign": acoustic verbal signs (dialogue), acoustic non-verbal signs (background noise, music), visual verbal signs (credits, letters, documents shown), and visual non-verbal signs. Hietala (1994: 98) has identified five different "information channels": picture, speech, noise and sound effects, music and text. Regardless of the number of these additional factors, they are matters that cannot be ignored. The subtitler cannot alter the original visual and auditory content of the work. If there are important pieces of information in these that do not find a counterpart in the target culture, in practical terms the subtitler has no other means but the subtitles to convey this information.

 

FFF or freeze-frame fun is a common acronym in the Internet newsgroups concerning The Simpsons. The concept includes both a technically oriented translation problem and an excuse to deny its existence � by definition the need for taping the programme and resorting to the trusty pause button on the VCR is implied. As the subtitler is supposed to serve first and foremost the television audience, s/he can justifiably omit these items as it is sometimes almost impossible to read them when watching the programme on normal speed. A charming example of a potential FFF item is a sign saying "Diz-nee-land � Not affiliated with Disneyland, Disney World, or anything else from the Walt Disney Company" (in the episode Old Money). Perhaps one even more appropriate comes up in Homer Badman as one of the items in the list of corrections � a huge amount of small print scrolling fast across the screen � in the sensationalist TV show Rock Bottom states: "If you are reading this you have no life."

 

The technique of animation enables the fireworks of details � quite a few of them allusions � characteristic of the series. Many of these details would probably not be there if the show was shot with real actors. However, the process can be reversed; the makers of the series are fully aware that their fans will make use their VCRs to spot yet another hilarious detail.

 

The series is rich in detail both verbally and visually, and some of these items are not quite as easily ignored as is the more obvious FFF material. There are numerous items in The Simpsons that belong to the categories defined by Ivarsson as "displays" and "captions". Displays are texts that are integral part of the picture, for example, shop or road signs, newspaper headlines, letters, video or computer displays, placards held by demonstrators and "any other texts that have been recorded by the camera and have significance for the action" (Ivarsson 1992: 14, 104). Captions are texts that are added to the film after shooting, texts that tell the audience where and/or when a scene is taking place, the name and position or title of a speaker, and so on (ibid. 104). In this thesis these phenomena will be referred to simply as displays, since whether or not an item is "recorded" by camera or added afterwards is insignificant in case of a cartoon like The Simpsons.

 

Ivarsson (1992: 104) states that translations of displays "should appear and disappear simultaneously with the original." This is obviously a sensible solution. However, the appearance of displays often coincides with dialogue. In cases like these, the audience is likely to expect to see the latter rather than the former in the subtitles, and the subtitler is basically forced to translate the dialogue while ignoring the displays. Unfortunately, the TT readers lose a lot of jokes and puns available for the ST audience this way.

 

With technical improvements this problem could be erased. Considering both the computer and television technology available today, it should not be too hard to insert the translated displays into the picture on their respective locations on the screen. This function should naturally be optional in order not to hide the written ST; some members of the audience do not necessarily need the translations � perhaps they do not want them at all � and should be allowed to see the original displays. There is no need to elaborate this point any further. Potential future improvements in technology are not of concern here and, in addition, paying too much attention to them is a handy way to make the whole study obsolete sooner than one can say "monochrome set".

 

Even if we are stuck with the technology that we have, there are nevertheless displays that are omitted in the TT that could have been translated, as there is no dialogue simultaneously, and there is time to actually read the display. This is a frequent phenomenon in the series, more of a rule than an exception. The most obvious example is Bart's chalkboard punishment sentence in the title sequence. As a rule, these are ignored in the subtitles.

 

The omission rate of displays is probably lowest when newspaper headlines are concerned. However, the TT regularly fails to offer a translation for:

a) names of shops and various institutions

'The Hungry Hun' restaurant (in Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk)

'Wee Monsieur' clothes shop (in Lisa The Greek and Lisa's Date with Density)

'Snippy Longstocking's' (the barber shop Lisa goes to in 22 Short Films About Springfield)

b) titles of books and magazines

'Faberge Egg Owner' and 'Modern Jewish Father' (in Like Father, Like Clown)

'Cheek Week' and 'American Breast Enthusiast' (found in the War Room in Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming)

c) labels in various products

'Nev-R-Break' dog collar (in Bart's Dog Gets an F)

'Li'l Bastard^� Traveling Kit' (Bart's belt pack in Itchy & Scratchy Land)

d) miscellaneous signs

'Put your sperm in our hands' (Springfield Sperm Bank slogan in Selma's Choice)

'Restroom for citizens only' (the US embassy in Australia in Bart vs. Australia)

'No shoes no shirt no salvation' (outside the church in Bart Sells His Soul)

'See ya real soon kids!' (engraved onto Krusty the Clown's tombstone in Bart the Fink)

'Get eurass back to Eurasia' (Moe's anti-immigration sign in Much Apu About Nothing)

 

As these examples show, a display often contains a joke and/or simply adds to the overall atmosphere which, in the case of The Simpsons, is often that of irony. Admittedly, most of the displays are not essential to the plot but as I mentioned earlier (see page 13), this is, in my opinion, an insufficient excuse for omissions. Heinonen (1995: 57) suggests that displays should be translated if they are connected to what happens in the picture (cf. Ivarsson 1992:� 104). This may be the policy applied in our case, too. Displays are often translated when they are relevant for understanding a given event or a piece of dialogue:

 

Man, that is flagrant false advertising.		T�rke�� valheellista mainontaa!
(A very disgruntled Otto steps out of "Stoner's Pot Palace / MARIN PAIKKA" that turned out to be a kitchenware shop in A Milhouse Divided)

 

Nevertheless, there are exceptions. In Lemon of Troy, kids from the neighbouring town of Shelbyville order the disguised Bart to write a graffiti:

 

Quit stalling, kid. Write 'Springfield sucks' in giant letters.

�l� viivyttele. Kirjoita siihen Springfieldil�iset on dorkia

 

The TT reveals what Bart is expected to do. Instead, Bart writes "Springfield rules suckers!" and reveals his identity to the astonished Shelbyville kids. However, the finished graffiti is omitted in the TT. Even if the words "rules" and "sucks" are not completely alien to the graffiti vocabulary in Finland either, the TT audience may be left under the false impression that Bart actually wrote what he was told to. In Summer of 4 ft. 2, Lisa's new friends decorate the Simpsons' car with, among others, the sentence "Lisa rules". Lisa had thought that her friends had rejected her, but, as it turns out, they had not � however, at first the act may seem like a "mean prank / ilkity�" as the sentence is omitted in the TT.

 

In And Maggie Makes Three, Bart and Lisa find out that there are no baby pictures of Maggie in the family album because they are in a place where Homer needs them the most. Mr. Burns had a sign installed in front of Homer's desk saying "Don't forget. You're here forever". We get to see that Homer has covered some of the letters with pictures of Maggie, and what remains to be seen now reads "Do it for her". This is omitted in the TT, leaving one of the actually non-sarcastic happy endings of the series partly unclear to the TT readers.

 

In Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One), oil is found underneath Springfield Elementary. People are pouring in with ideas as to how to spend this wealth. They present their ideas, and, in a close-up shot, applications are stamped "Approved". This is not translated, and since the expressions of the applicants are not seen nor any comments heard, there is no indication in the TT as to whether their ideas were approved of or rejected. The fact that they were approved of becomes evident later on when people have to return all the goods they had received, but, for the time being, one could easily assume the applications being rejected as they are forcibly dealt with using a red stamp.

 

In The Springfield Files, Homer wanders off to a creepy part of the town. He sees a billboard with the word "DIE" on it and screams. Wind blows away a tree branch that covers some of the billboard, revealing its complete message: "DIET" � and Homer screams again. These items are both omitted.

 

As a basic guideline I suggest that when there is room available � that is, a character is not talking at the same time � omissions should not be justified. I agree with Ivarsson when he states that "translation should not be made shorter than necessary and the titles should run as long as time allows" (Ivarsson 1992: 48)^[10].

 

 

 

3. Eye on Springfield

 

Flim in Springfield / Flimatkaa Springfieldiss�

� Advertisement for Springfield in Variety in Radioactive Man

 

We will now examine the work to be translated. This chapter is an introduction to the world of The Simpsons: the setting, the characters, the plots. These matters are analysed briefly, keeping in mind what is important from the subtitler's point of view.

 

 

3.1 THE SETTING

 

Lisa, if you don't like your job, you don't strike. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way.

� Homer in The PTA Disbands

 

The events in the series take place in Springfield, USA. This fact has not been changed by the subtitler. In the TT the Simpsons are American and the setting is the United States with names of places, the currency and the like retained.

 

This the worst 4th of July ever. I hate America!		Sikasurkea itsen�isyysp�iv�. Meik� vihaa Amerikkaa.
(Bart in Summer of 4 ft. 2)

 

Ruth: I actually had some doubts about moving to Springfield. Especially after that Time cover story "America's Worst City". Marge: You could see our house in that photo!		Olin ep�luuloinen Springfieldin suhteen, � etenkin Time-lehden USAn hirvein kaupunki -jutun j�lkeen. Meid�n talomme n�kyi kansikuvassa.
(in New Kid on the Block)

 

Race you to Utah, Milhouse.		Kuka ekana Utahissa?
(Bart is about to get caught in Bart's Comet)

 

Americanize this, my good man.		Vaihtakaa t�m� dollareiksi
(Bart in Three Men and a Comic Book)

 

Instead of actually mentioning the name of the country, the TT occasionally conveys the sense in which it is used in the context. As these examples demonstrate, the TT aims to reproduce the intended effect of the ST item:

 

You wouldn't lie to the United States, would you, Bart?		Et kai valehtelisi is�nmaallesi?
(the judge in Bart Gets Hit by a Car)

 

That Ayatollah thinks he's better than America.		Ajatollah luulee olevansa meit� parempi.
(Homer in Two Bad Neighbors)

 

In alt.tv.simpsons there has been a fair amount of lively discussion concerning the actual location of Springfield. Most of the contributors who still can be bothered with the issue seem to agree that the setting is imaginary. The name of the state is never mentioned, but its capital is simply called Capital City, and the state slogan is "Not just another state" (as seen in Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish). The Capital City nickname is revealed when Homer and his co-worker Mindy Simmons are going there to represent Springfield nuclear power plant in a conference:

 

Wow, Capital City � The Windy Apple!		Capital City, Tuulinen Omena!
(the very impressed Mandy in The Last Temptation of Homer)

 

This combination of Chicago (Windy City) and New York (Big Apple) supports the fictitious nature of the setting. In addition, there is the Crosstown Bridge (TT: "Kuuluisa silta" in Dancin' Homer), the kind of generic must sight that your average major city would feature.

 

From a narrative point of view emphasising the imaginary nature of the setting is, of course, a handy technique for not alienating any section of the ST audience. It creates an image of an 'average' family living in an suburban area of an average town in an average state. Springfield is one of the most common town names in USA . This gives the viewer a sense of generality � Springfield is Anytown, USA, and these people could be living next door to you. Or they might live next door to your neighbour, which is probably what your neighbours think, anyway.

 

The Simpsons is a part of a tradition, a continuum of family situation comedies or sitcoms. It is a parody of a whole genre of products spanning several decades of television history from its early days up to the present. The concept of genre will be examined in detail in 4.1; for the time being I would simply like to point out that a town called Springfield is also the setting for the 1950s series Father Knows Best which in many ways constitutes the antithesis of The Simpsons. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, allegedly chose the name partly because of this.

 

Springfield has all the elements necessary for Anytown USA. The Simpson children go to Springfield Elementary and the father works at the Springfield nuclear power plant. Other often seen locations are Apu's Kwik-E-Mart, Moe's Tavern, and the Springfield Retirement Castle where Grampa Simpson resides. To put it in a nutshell, the town has everything required by the plot, even the dear enemy neighbouring town of Shelbyville. For a Finnish viewer the Anytown USA setting is familiar from several television series and films. The vast majority of the target audience is likely to be happy with this, and the setting does not cause any extra difficulties for the subtitler.

 

 

3.2 THE SIMPSON FAMILY AND THE SIDEKICKS

 

I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?

� Bart introducing himself to the Devil in Bart Gets Hit by a Car

 

The stars of the show are, by definition, the Simpsons. The immediate family consists of the father Homer, the mother Marge, and the children: Bart, Lisa and Maggie. This modern day nuclear (in more than one way) family lives in an average suburban house in an average suburban area; their socio-economic status would perhaps be that of lower middle class.

 

Plots dealing with the relationships within the family and with characters connected to the family are the basic building blocks of the series, as one would expect from a family sitcom. Regular 'guest' stars include Mr. Burns, the local big shot and the owner of Springfield nuclear power plant; Waylon Smithers, Mr. Burns' trusty sidekick and number one admirer; principal Seymour Skinner who gets Vietnam flashbacks and has Norman Bates' mother as his immediate family; Krusty the Clown, host of his own children's show who appears in an impressive array of merchandise, from Krusty Non-Narkotik Kough Syrup and Krusty Brand Sulphuric Acid to Krusty Home Pregnancy Test; Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the Kwik-E-Mart clerk; Barney, Homer's best friend who uses burps as punctuation marks; and of course the Flanders family, the Simpsons' religious model citizen neighbours. Human relationships � even if the humans are yellow and have four fingers in each hand � are hardly alien to the Finnish audience, and thus as such present no problems for the subtitler. Schwartzkopf (1989: 24) suggests that American films are attractive and successful around the world because "personalities in American feature films are constructed so that every audience in the world of whatever nationality can identify itself with these personalities." I would not go quite as far as to totally agree with this, but to some extent this mode of thinking can be applied to The Simpsons, too: even if we could not actually identify ourselves with these characters, they are based on stereotypes recognised by a vast majority of culturally literate television viewers.

 

Homer J. Simpson is the kind of person that will surely give one second thoughts about living next door to a nuclear power plant. His stupidity and incompetence reaches proverbial proportions. Homer loves television and all things free and edible, and his fatherly advice is questionable at best:

 

Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals. Except the weasels.		On t�rke�� oppia luumuilemaan. Se erottaa ihmiset muusta luomakunnasta. Paitsi luumuista.
(in Boy-Scoutz N the Hood)

 

Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try.		Muksut, yrititte parhaanne ja ep�onnistuitte. Opetus on t�m�: ei pid� yritt��.
(in Burns' Heir)

 

Homer, defined by Spigel (1992: 184) as "the classic 'male boob' of the 1990s" is a sucker for gizmos he sees on ads and get-rich schemes, unlike one of his more significant sitcom predecessors, Archie Bunker in All in the Family, who "seemed to harbor no such illusions; he just watched television" (Marc 1989: 179).

 

Homer's vocabulary � or the lack of it � is important from the subtitler's point of view. In addition to the usual "Mmm" when something is good and "D'oh!"^[11] when something goes wrong, he has trouble expressing himself; the word he is likely to use for any item the name of which escapes him is "thing". Words like "juttu" and "hommeli" are often seen in the TT, and rightly so.

 

Can you repeat the part of the stuff where you said all about, erm, the things?		Voisitteko toistaa sen kohdan, miss� puhuitte niist� jutuista?
(in Homer the Smithers)

 

I'm the best monothingy guy there ever was.		Maailman paras monohommelimies
(in Marge vs. the Monorail)

 

Oh, your blue thing with the... things.		Sen sinisen hommelonko
(in Some Enchanted Evening)

 

As far as cultural references and allusions are concerned, Homer's general knowledge is lacking at best. Examples of this abound in the series:

 

I bet Einstein turned himself all sorts of colours before he invented the light bulb.		Einsteinkin takuulla m�hli ennen kuin keksi s�hk�lampun
(Homer's words of consolation to his son in Bart the Genius)

 

From the dinosaurs that tormented our caveman ancestors...		Dinosaurukset vainosivat esi-isi�mme...
(a skilled public speaker in Homer's Odyssey)

 

Principal Skinner: You'd be getting an Albanian. Homer: You mean all white with pink eyes?		[Saatte] albanialaisen Semmoisen valkean ja vaaleanpunasilm�isenk�?
(discussing exchange students in The Crepes of Wrath)

 

Remember your Hippopotamus oath!		Muistakaa Hippopotamuksen valanne
(Homer to Dr. Hibbert in Homer's Triple Bypass)

 

To understand the jokes the reader must obviously know that Einstein did not invent the light bulb, that dinosaurs were long extinct before the first cavemen appeared, and so on. Most of the time these are matters of general knowledge rather than culture-bound information, and should present no problems for the TT audience. It is important not to correct the mistakes made by Homer: if he gets things wrong, and he regularly does, this should be apparent in the TT, too. There are occasional slips in the TT, but these are clearly exceptions to the rule.

 

Is the Statue of Liberty just a statue!? Is the leaning tower of Pizza just a statue?		Onko Vapaudenpatsas vain patsas? Tai Pisan vino torni?
(in The Telltale Head)

 

Hey, what is this? The Spanish Expedition?		Mik� inkvisitio t�m� on?
(in Homer's Night Out)

 

Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is the mother of the family. To put it in a politically correct way, she is a homemaker. Most of the time she is the ideal mother who often sets things straight when everyone else is acting irrational. Marge's vocabulary and/or idiolect does not pose the subtitler with any particular dilemmas.

 

Bart is the eldest of the Simpsons children, a troublemaker extraordinaire � or, according to the maestro himself, "this century's Dennis The Menace / t�m�n ajan Ville Vallaton" (in Cape Feare). Bart's catchphrases can be translated with existing ones in the TL or, instead, new ones can be coined as long as they sound like something your average 10-year old would have said that you wish he had not.

 

Eat my shorts		Sy� kalsarit
(in Bart the Murderer)

Eat my shorts		Haise pahalle
(in The Simpsons Spin-off Showcase)

 

Hey, cool! I'm dead!		Huippua, meitsi delasi!
(in Bart Gets Hit by a Car)

 

Get bent.		Suksi kuuseen
(in Like Father, Like Clown)

Get bent.		Haise pahalle
(in Bart's Friend Falls in Love)

 

As the example above demonstrates, there is some inconsistency: the same SL phrase is occasionally replaced with a different TL phrase. Probably the most famous Bart-phrase of them all is "Don't have a cow", the translation of which varies in the TT. A translation seldom reaches the status of the original, and inconsistent variation further diminishes the odds.

 

Don't have a cow, dad.		�l� saa slaagii, faija
(in There's No Disgrace Like Home and Call of the Simpsons)

 

Don't have a cow.		Relaa v�h�n
(in Bart the Murderer)

 

Lisa: You can't be cool by just spouting a bunch of worn-out buzzwords. Bart: Don't have a cow, Lis.		Sille oli annettu vain kuluneita muotisanontoja �l� ved� pulttia, Lise.
(in The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show)

 

The phrase appeared in a number of Simpsons merchandising, too, and a fine example of the way the series parodies itself is seen in Lisa the Vegetarian, where the phrase is removed from its original context. Apu's pro-vegetarian t-shirt carries a Ghostbusters-style cow logo and the message: "Don't have a cow, man!" This has been omitted in the TT.

 

Bart is very jealous of his catchphrases, as seen in a couple of episodes in which someone else shamelessly uses them. These are translated in the same manner as if the lines had been delivered by Bart himself:

 

Lisa: Don't have a cow, man! Bart: See! That's my expression! Marge: You haven't said that in four years. Let Lisa have it!		�l� ved� pultteja! Tuo on meitsin repliikki! Et ole k�ytt�nyt sit� nelj��n vuoteen. Anna Lisan pit�� se
(in Summer of 4 ft 2)

 

I'll be in the car, dudes.		Meitsi venttaa autossa, j�b�t
(Smithers disguised as Bart in Raging Abe Simpson and his Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish')

 

Lisa is the intellectual of the family, whose verbal skills often defy the technical restraints the subtitler has to cope with. There is simply not enough room for Lisa's well-formed sentences and regular use of big words. Ivarsson (1992: 95) points out that it is easier and less time-consuming to read simple, familiar words than unusual ones, and that "if one is faced with a choice of two synonyms, it is better to choose the more common one if this can be done without doing violence to the spirit and style of the original." Unfortunately, in this case it is impossible to have the cake and eat it too, and at times Lisa's lines tend to lose some flavour when the subtitler has no options but to employ Translationese in the TT, however skilfully this is done.

 

Lisa's references to historical figures and events, artists and writers, and so on are somewhat problematic for the subtitler. One can assume some of these people and places being a part of the general knowledge of an educated Finn, while some of Lisa's references are clearly source culture oriented. Luckily enough, at times Lisa herself defines her references:

 

It's a tribute to the trailblazing women who made our country great. There's Georgia O'Keefe, Susan B. Anthony, and this is Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. I'm sure you haven't heard of her, but she worked her whole life to preserve the Florida Everglades.		T�m� on kunnianosoitus naisille, jotka tekiv�t Amerikasta suuren Georgia O'Keefe, Susan B. Anthony � ja Marjorie Stoneman Douglas H�n taisteli koko ik�ns� suojellakseen Floridan suoaluetta
(Lisa describing her centrepiece in Bart vs. Thanksgiving)

 

She'll have the wisdom of Gertrude Stein and the wit of Cathy Guisewite, the tenacity of Nina Totenberg and the common sense of Elizabeth Katy Stanton. And to top it off, the down-to-earth good looks of Eleanor Roosevelt.		Sill� on Gertrude Steinin viisaus, Cathy Guisewiten �ly, � Nina Totenbergin sisu ja Elizabeth Cady Stantonin kekseli�isyys Lis�ksi se on uljas kuin Eleanor Roosevelt
(in Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy)

 

The youngest of the Simpsons children, Maggie, is usually just sucking her pacifier. She has uttered but one word^[12] during the first eight seasons of the series ("Daddy / Isi" in Lisa's First Word) which makes her lines reasonably easy to translate.

 

Grampa Simpson's references to historical events are mostly confusing and/or inaccurate. The most important thing here, as well as in Homer's speech, is to keep the wrong facts wrong:

 

You're ignorant! That's the Wright Brothers' plane! At Kitty Hawk in 1903, Charles Lindberg flew it 15 miles on a thimbleful of corn oil. Single-handedly won us the Civil War, it did.		Poikatolvana! Se on Wrightin veljesten kone Charles Lindberg lensi sill� 15 mailia pisaralla maissi�ljy� Voitti yksin koko sis�llissodan
(in Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming)

 

You're really asking two questions there. The first takes me back to 1934. Admiral Byrd had just reached the Pole only hours ahead of the Three Stooges.		Kysyit nyt kaksi kysymyst�. Ensimm�inen vie minut vuoteen 1934 Amiraali Byrd oli selvinnyt navalle...
(in The Secret War of Lisa Simpson)

 

Luckily enough for the subtitler, Grampa's greatest hero who is regularly referred to in the ST is familiar for the Finnish TV audiences, too:

 

I'm an old man, I hate everything but Matlock!		Olen vanha mies. Vihaan kaikkea paitsi Matlockia
(Grampa in Whacking Day)

 

As for the other characters in the series, most of them do not display any particular idiosyncrasies that would be problematic for the subtitler. A few exceptions to this rule are Mr. Burns, Groundskeeper Willie and Apu.

 

Charles Montgomery Burns owns the Springfield nuclear power plant. Mean^[13], unscrupulous and filthy rich, Mr. Burns is a definite Scrooge figure. His name (cf. the character Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane) is probably no accident, as the episode in which Mr. Burns is looking for his lost teddy bear is named Rosebud. Mr. Burns speaks in an old-fashioned way and is constantly referring to celebrities and events of decades gone by. He is hardly politically correct; the concept itself is all too new for him. In The Old Man and the Lisa we find out that Mr. Burns' stock portfolio still holds Confederated Slave Holdings (TT: Etel�n orjaosakkeet), and in Homer at the Bat he wants to recruit professional ringers for his softball team from all the main leagues, including "The Negro League / Neekeriliiga".

 

Mother of Pearl!		Kiesus!
(in Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?)

 

Yes, I'd like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?		L�het�n t�m�n kirjeen Preussin l�hetyst��n Siamiin Ehtiik� se puoli viiden linjabiiliin?
(in Mother Simpson)

 

I took Lily to the local cinematorium where our passions were inflamed by Clark Gable's reckless use of the word "Damn".		Vein Lilyn el�viin kuviin, miss� intohimomme her�si, � kun Clark Gable k�ytti niin huolettomasti sanaa "hitto"
(in Burns, Baby Burns)

 

It is easy to notice the recurrent datedness of Mr. Burns' speech. Still, his references usually simply add to the character without actually affecting the storyline^[14], and rarely cause major translation problems. As these examples show, the subtitler has usually retained the original referent. It might be argued that every now and then she could have replaced them with a suitable Finnish counterpart, provided one was found; on the other hand, many of Mr. Burns' references are probably dated enough to appear alien to the ST audience, too.

 

The main problems with Groundskeeper Willie and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon are caused by their ethnic origin; Willie is a Scotsman while Apu is an immigrant from India. Both of them have distinctive accents, which, for the subtitler is both a problem and a solution � as mentioned in 2.1, at least passive listening of the ST is expected from the viewer (Brondeel 1994: 28). The subtitler does not have to worry about expressing the accent in the TT, since it is reasonably obvious that these people sound different than the other characters in the series. In addition to the accent, Willie's vocabulary features very Scottish-sounding words^[15]:

 

Get yer haggis right here! Chopped heart and lungs, boiled in a wee sheep's stomach! Tastes as good as it sounds! Good for what ails ya!		T��lt� haggisia! Pilkottua syd�nt� ja keuhkoja keitettyin� lampaan mahassa! Maistuu yht� hyv�lt� kuin kuulostaa. Parantaa kaiken
(in Lisa the Beauty Queen)

 

Ach! Back to the loch with ye, Nessie		Saat painua takaisin Loch Nessiin
(Willie watching Selma's dating service tape in Selma's Choice)

 

In Homer's Barbershop Quartet Willie auditions for The Be Sharps (TT: Alan��net) singing Downtown. Thanks to his accent what he sings sounds more like "Doontoon!". In the TT this appears as "Statiin!".

 

Apu's vocabulary is not a problem as such, provided there are enough polite additions in the TT. Even though his accent does not really show in the TT, his ability to conveniently 'forget' his English when unwanted customers show up does:

 

The customer: Attendant, I'd like some gas. Apu: Yes I'm sorry I do not speak English, okay. The customer: But... you were just talking to... Apu: Yes, yes, hot dog, hot dog, yes sir, no sir, maybe, okay.		Tarvitsen bensiini� -Valitan, ei osa englantia Puhuitte juuri... �Hot dog, kyll�, ei, ehk�
(in Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield)

 

All in all, idiolects are a phenomenon of most interest for translators in general; for subtitlers they present a true challenge^[16]. Technical limitations hinder building up the characters � Lisa probably being the best example here � but in general idiolects should be (and, in this case, have been) taken into account in the macro-level translation strategy.

 

 

3.3 MEET MATT?

 

Would you now like to meet Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons? Well, you will not. Nor will most of the subtitlers working on the series. Nor will the ST audience and the TT audiences around the world.

 

What we see and hear in the series itself is all we have, and all we really should work on. We cannot take a peek inside Matt Groening's nor the other writers' head. Similarly, the makers of the series cannot count on the assumption that their potential viewers have all read or heard their interviews or read articles concerning their views of the world and the message(s) they may or may not wish to convey through The Simpsons. What you see is what you get; this is what the subtitlers have to work with and it is their interpretation of what goes on that the TL audience will eventually receive in the form of the TT.

 

Bassnett-McGuire (1980: 23) states that "the emphasis always in translation is on the reader or listener, and the translator must tackle the SL text in such a way that the TL version will correspond to the SL version." She continues by warning the translator not to "be tempted by the school that pretends to determine the original intentions of an author on the basis of a self-contained text. The translator cannot be the author of the SL text, but as the author of the TL text has a clear moral responsibility to the TL readers." Snell-Hornby sees a text essentially as "the verbalized expression of an author's intention as understood by the translator as a reader, who then recreates this whole for another readership in another culture." (Snell-Hornby 1988: 2.)

 

The subtitler is a reader just like her/his eventual audience, but s/he is expected to be professional in this. Morley points out that the analysis of the text or message remains "a fundamental necessity, for the polysemy of the message is not without its own structure. Audiences do not see only what they want to see, since a message (or programme) is not simply a window on the world, but a construction. While the message is not an object with one real meaning, there are within it signifying mechanisms which promote certain meanings, even one privileged meaning, and suppress others: these are the directive closures encoded in the message." (Morley 1992: 21.)^[17]

 

As one would expect, there have been jokes in The Simpsons concerning the writers' intentions. The persistent rumour about Matt Groening wanting to "annoy Republicans" in every episode may or may not have something to do with the fact that The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular! features 'trivia' questions, one of which concerns the cash register display in the title sequence of the show. It is 'revealed' that the display reads "NRA4EVER / Kansallinen kiv��riliitto on paras", which is told to be:

 

Just one of the hundreds of radical right-wing messages inserted into every show by creator Matt Groening.		Se on vain yksi radikaalioikeistolaisista viesteist�, � joita Matt Groening ujuttaa joka jaksoon
(in The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular!)

 

 

 

4. INTERPRETING TRADITION

 

Oh, Marge, cartoons don't have any deep meaning.

They're just stupid drawings to give you a cheap laugh.

� Homer in Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington

 

To support the assumption that the subtitler of a series like The Simpsons is not only dealing with two 'national' cultures but is, in fact, faced with two variants of an international superculture, we will take a look at the concepts of format and genre. These, in turn, are closely connected to the concepts of parody and intertextuality.

 

 

4.1 FORMAT AND GENRE

 

If we consider episodic television fiction in general, there are two broad categories of format: serial and series. The former is a continuous narrative (e.g. several soap operas) whereas in the latter individual episodes are separate from one another, the cast and the basic situation acting as the connecting elements (Ang 1985: 52). Thus, the format employed in The Simpsons is that of a series.

 

According to Hietala, restoring balance is the key characteristic of a series. The wide concept of series includes, for example, the news. The popularity of the format owes to the updating function of television (cf. Fiske 1978: 18). The viewer comes back day after day to predictable � both in content and in form � programmes to find out whether anything new has happened to "them": Clinton, Yeltsin, the Simpsons, the Forresters in The Bold and the Beautiful [Kauniit ja rohkeat]. Many a programme ends with a kind of a closure: the right couple has been sent on a holiday trip, the bad guy has been shot and the murder solved, everything is back to normal in the Simpsons family. (Hietala 1996: 39.)

 

Narrative structures are a part of tradition. Receptors usually have a lot of information about and expectations for the narrative they have decided to read or listen or see. This does not only apply to the products of popular culture; the phenomenon works equally well when folktales are concerned. (Alasuutari & Kyt�m�ki 1991:8). The combination of repetitive and innovative structures of narrative is not something brought about by the age of mechanical reproduction either but is the basic characteristic of a folktale, too. In the universal scale, the narrative forms of entertainment are seen by Alasuutari and Kyt�m�ki as the most common type of narrative (ibid. 10).

 

The combination of repetition and innovation is the recipe for genre works. To quote Berger (1992: xi), a given work is "distinctive in its own right, but it also shares certain conventions with other texts of the same genre or class." Ang describes genre as a "complex of themes, narrative structures and styles that groups of individual films or television programmes have in common with one another"; a genre is a formula, while each genre film is a specific 'application' of its rules and conventions (Ang 1985: 51). Fiske (1987: 114) states that genre "works to promote and organize intertextual relations."

 

The subtitler has to recognise the genre of a given work � or a section^[18] of a given work � and consider its significance to the viewer both in the source and the target culture, as noted in 2.1. But what are its practical implications for a subtitler? I suggest its value lies in the supercultural nature of genre, in shared expectations that transcend traditional cultural boundaries.

 

Each genre work has its own idiosyncrasies but since "we know these rules and conventions" we are able to quickly recognise the genre (Ang 1985: 51). "We expect certain things to happen in a science fiction film or situation comedy because we all learn the conventions of the genre as a result of watching films and television programs, reading novels, and listening to the radio" states Berger (1992: xi; cf. Ang 1985: 51). Interestingly enough, both of the scholars quoted here use the word "we" when they describe these phenomena, as if to subconsciously underline their widespread, universally applicable nature. Newcomb and Hirsch bring the business value of genre out in the open by pointing out that "it is in the economic interests of producers to build on audience familiarity with generic patterns and instill novelty into those generically based presentations. Truly innovative forms that use the generic base as a foundation are likely to be among the more successful shows" (Newcomb and Hirsch 1994b: 509).

 

The Simpsons regularly parodies genre markers. When the family dog, Santa's Little Helper, graduates from Canine College in Bart's Dog Gets an F the scene is familiar from any college comedy: leashes are thrown in the air and displays telling what became of the dogs later on in their lives appear on the screen together with the dogs' names and pictures. The renegade cop who is suspended before he nails the villain is parodied in Homer and Apu. When Apu is fired from the Kwik-E-Mart his name patch is torn off, and he has to turn in his pricing gun (TT: "Luovuta hintalappupistoolisi"). "The other one, too" states the chain representative � and Apu 'finds' a smaller pricing gun strapped to his leg.

 

Genre markers can appear on the soundtrack, too. There is a car chase scene in Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy in which Homer and Grampa escape the angry villagers. Homer shouts to Grampa: "They didn't start chasing us until you turned on that getaway music! / He alkoivat jahdata meit� vasta kun aloit soittaa pakomusiikkia". He switches off the car stereo, the music ends, and the villagers stop and turn back. In The Springfield Files the soundtrack features spooky string music as Homer wanders in a menacing environment and sees an approaching bus. As the bus stops, the text Springfield Philharmonic (TT: Springfieldin filharmonikot) is seen painted on its side, and the orchestra are busy playing the tune in question. All of these examples show how genre makes it possible to toy with the audience's expectations.

 

Aristotle was the father of genre studies with his book on poetics (Berger: xiv) but in the modern ages the concept is usually associated with the American cinema. Its genres were born in the so-called classical era of the Hollywood studio system, roughly between 1930 and 1960. Today there are two main schools in genre studies: the 'auteur' school that emphasises the value of the cinema artist, and the structural-mythical school that emphasises the value of genre. (Hietala 1994: 163.)

 

Even if the concept of genre in media studies seems self-evident, its usage is far from uniform. What is a genre for one is a subgenre for someone else, and whether the visual or the narrative elements are the decisive criteria is a controversial issue (Hietala 1994: 166). From the subtitler's point of view such terminology disputes are of secondary importance.

 

Berger (1992: xiii) points out that one of the reasons behind the importance of genre studies is that they provide us with insights about what texts are like and how they function for audiences. If a subtitler's job is, indeed, that of recreating her/his impression of the ST as a reader, then it is of paramount importance to know how genres work both in the source and the target culture to be able to perform this task in the TT. I will return to the concept of genre competence in 6.2.

 

The format of The Simpsons is a well-known clich� in its own right. The half-hour situation comedy has been immensely popular since the early days of television (cf. Sterling and Kittross 1990: 344). Shows like I Love Lucy, Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best established the genre in the early 50s. Back then family sitcoms usually opened with "brief but potent establishing shots of the exterior of the family house" (Marc 1989: 100-101); in the title sequence of The Simpsons we see the whole family rushing back home through Springfield, heading for the living room � the pivotal point of a sitcom family, according to Hietala (1992: 81) � and, finally, their beloved couch in front of the TV. Sitcoms have usually been "built on a 'typical' but actually very atypical American family" (Sterling and Kittross 1990: 344); a statement that is hard to deny in the case of The Simpsons.

 

The series, obviously, parodies this tradition. Television viewers have been exposed to the basic elements of the story for several decades, and what The Simpsons are up to is presenting these elements in a slightly twisted manner. Hietala (1992: 81) states that, due to its enduring nature, the family sitcom more than any other genre reflects how the status and the problems of a nuclear family have changed in both the American society and the Western world in general. The Simpsons is a part of the tradition of the family sitcom genre which both shapes it and provides it with material. The appearance of the series is a descendent of the 50s nuclear family sitcoms, while its attitude owes more to the more provoking tradition born in the 70s with All in the Family [Perhe on pahin], which, according to Marc (1989: 187) redefined the whole genre "in ways that have made the substance and style of all subsequent sitcoms directly or indirectly traceable to those revisions."

 

To further demonstrate the power of genre, several observations made on other 90s hit shows hold true with The Simpsons as well. Denise Kervin has studied another Fox Television series Married...with Children [Pulmuset] and states that a major source of contradiction and humour in the series "comes from the use of intertextual references, particularly to television and popular culture of the last thirty years" (Kervin 1994: 214)^[19]. These references are very clear in the "presentation of location, set, and characters, all three drawing on and satirizing the conventions of American television's domestic comedy genre" (ibid. 214). The irony of Married...with Children "relies on the viewer's knowledge of conventional television families, a familiarity with characters like the Cleavers and the Andersons" (ibid. 216). The Cleaver family inhabited Leave It To Beaver while the Andersons starred in Father Knows Best. As mentioned earlier, the location of the latter was a town called Springfield.

 

The police series Sledge Hammer [Moukarimies] toys with traditional formats, too. Steinbock (1988: 142) states that the intellectual nihilism of the series requires from the viewer both the ability to laugh at "eternal" moral values and cultural knowledge, particularly concerning the cinema. Similarly, Mayerle's observations on Roseanne could just as well be applied to The Simpsons: unlike the traditional prime time formula would have it, the series features characters "who are just getting by financially, who are overweight and not concerned about dieting and exercise, whose children and relatives are not always pleasant. Roseanne has held up a mirror to the people and culture of the last decade of the twentieth century, and the reflection is often bittersweetly accurate." (Mayerle 1994: 114.)

 

Hietala defines The Simpsons as a postmodern sitcom, in which relatively serious issues are handled in a humorous manner. He suggests that, even if the series features ironic, 90s-style cracks that undermine its apparent conservatism, the series upholds traditional values in both its role-typing and episode conclusions. (Hietala 1992: 89-90). To some extent I would like to disagree with this, as these apparently happy endings � along with the rest of the episode � are often accompanied by very sarcastic, politically incorrect overtones. Still, it has to be kept in mind that the show has matured. Salminen states that in its early days The Simpsons did bear a close resemblance to the TV families of Roseanne and Married... with Children (cf. above), but that gradually the series developed into an anarchistic satire with sharp cultural references and meta-series characteristics (Salminen 1996).

 

To sum up this chapter, there seems to be a fair amount of evidence to indicate that at least the culturally literate members of the target audience are aware of genres. They are likely to recognise the narrative structures and form expectations based on these without any special efforts by the subtitler. Further observations concerning genre will be returned to in chapter 6.2.

 

 

4.2 PARODY AND INTERTEXTUALITY

 

The textuality of television is essentially intertextual.

� Fiske (1987: 15)

 

As I have argued, The Simpsons is essentially a parody. Berger (1992: 47) sees parody as "a prime example of intertextuality" while Nash illustrates its value by stating that "the creation of a parodic texture may sometimes appear to be the exclusive principle of any comic work" (Nash 1985: 101).

 

Parody, by definition, requires a target to be parodied: it has to be a parody of something. Whether this target is a particular artist, a piece of work or a genre, the prerequisite is that there is "something distinctive and recognizable about them" which can be imitated and made fun of in the parodic work (Berger 1992:47). The form is left intact while the contents are altered to create a comical, critical or polemic effect (Reiss and Vermeer 1986: 101). A specific target is apparently not necessary; a given text can "have a parodic semblance without being a parody of anything in particular" (Nash 1985: 89).

 

Recognition of the target does not seem essential either. Reiss and Vermeer (1986: 101) are somewhat sceptical about this issue, whereas Berger (1992: 47) says that it is possible to enjoy parodies to a limited extent without being familiar with a given style or text. Nash goes one step further and claims that "we can hugely enjoy a text without being able to identify a parodic source" (Nash 1985: 89). Similarly, Elina P�yht�ri who has studied parody in The Simpsons believes it is possible to derive pleasure from the show without recognising the cultural references in it^[20].

 

However, these liberties are not available for the subtitler. When a translated television series is concerned, the success of the parody is highly dependent on the subtitler's ability to recognise the targets of imitation and ridicule. The subtitler needs to know what is going on. Here s/he is first and foremost a reader. The way s/he understands the ST shapes her/his solutions in creating the TT for the Finnish audience.

 

This puts a lot of pressure on the subtitler. Nevertheless, it does not deliver the viewers of all responsibility, as neither humour nor allusions are one-way streets. "Humour nearly always supposes some piece of factual knowledge shared by humorist and audience" states Nash (1985: 4), and continues: "Most allusions make some demand on our competence as social beings with ready access to certain facts and commonplaces" (ibid. 76). Some knowledge is obviously required from the viewers, if they are to enjoy The Simpsons to its fullest. A subtitler can sometimes work miracles as the author of the TT, but performing them throughout a series with over a hundred of episodes is, to put it mildly, asking too much.

 

"Humour is an occurrence in a social play. It characterizes the interaction of persons in situations in cultures." (Nash 1985: 12). This definition, too, implies that cultural skills are required from both the subtitler and the viewer. The viewers' cultural skills will be returned to in 5.1.2.

 

Being a parody, it is evident that intertextuality is of main importance in The Simpsons. The series refers and alludes to a number of different sources. The subtitler should be able recognise both the allusions and the so-called illusions of allusion � admittedly, this may not be attainable, but at least it is a goal worth pursuing. To emphasise the value of allusions, Nash (1985: 80) refers to them as cardinal devices in the structure of comic texts.

 

All allusions are not created equal; some sources are more esoteric than others, and some allusions are more subtle than others. Intertextuality can be a true challenge for the subtitler � and, to varying degrees, it is intended to be challenging for the audience, too.

 

Steinbock defines the comedy of Sledge Hammer [Moukarimies] as intellectually conceited. Thus, it is unavoidably exclusive. Mass audiences cannot be expected to master all of the cultural codes the series toys with. (Steinbock 1988: 144). There is a hint of conceited superiority in this statement, but the basic message is very probably true. Again, the subtitler is required to 'know everything about everything' � it is her/his duty as a qualified professional to live up to this role by recognising and analysing allusions from two different points of view: that of a ST reader and that of a TT reader. Once again, this is asking quite a bit, and whether or not anyone can actually achieve perfection in this multicultural allusion game I leave up to the reader to decide. Nevertheless, the more cultural a text, the harder it is to reproduce the effect in the TT unless the subtitler is "imaginative, sensitive and steeped in the SL culture" (Newmark 1988: 9).

 

At this point one might � and should � ask whether it is the subtitler's task to chew everything into easily swallowed pieces even though s/he were familiar with various aspects of a given allusion. My answer to this question would be a very strict no. Leppihalme, too, states that "superfluous explanatory additions can be received as condescending as they can be thought to suggest that the information is too esoteric for the audience to have it" (Leppihalme 1994: 139).

 

A fair share of the enjoyment a viewer derives from the series comes from shared knowledge, the in-group feeling of realising that both you and the author know something others might not know. As Leppihalme puts it: "Recognition of a creative allusion and the subsequent deeper understanding of a passage or text means that the reader is participating in the creation of the text and may be rewarded by a sense of achievement and self-congratulation. In essence, s/he may feel that s/he has passed a test with flying colours, showing that s/he is part of an in-group of readers, on the same wave-length as the author." (Leppihalme 1994: 29.)

 

Naturally, this phenomenon is not limited to The Simpsons or other products of audiovisual media. Makkonen describes how it works in literature: the pleasure of a reader is derived from participating in the game of recognising allusions (Makkonen 1991: 13). Nash, on the other hand, analyses the conversational aspect of this allusion game: "[Allusions] are a kind of test, proving the credentials of the initiated, baffling the outsider. In effect, they are a device of power, enabling the speaker to control a situation and authoritatively turn it to his own advantage" (Nash 1985: 74).

 

In other words, in a successful translation of intertextual elements a kind of benevolent conspiracy is formed. The TT readers should be allowed the chance of spotting allusions and other bits of parody themselves; this must not be the privilege of the ST readers. The subtitler should make this sensation possible for her/his audience, and must not deny it from them.

 

Leppihalme (1994: 234) sums up the qualities a competent professional in the field needs: a sufficient degree of biculturisation, sensitivity to allusions and their function and meaning, and intercultural awareness of the needs of receivers as well as such in-born qualities as creativity and associative skills. Thus, some effort may well be needed to live up to the role of a qualified professional.