Audiovisual genre and the translation of vocatives in interlingual subtitles

In this work we set out to investigate the role of audiovisual genre in the translation of vocatives in interlingual subtitles. By merging the distinct research areas of film genre and audiovisual translation, we mean to shed light on both and to evidence their mutual influences. Our investigation is based on a varied sample of English audiovisual products subtitled in Italian. The corpus consists of an old sample of four British and American films - mainly comedies and dramas (cf. Bruti, Perego 2005) - , i.e., Sliding Doors (P. Howitt, 1998, UK), The Talented Mr Ripley (A. Minghella, 1999, USA-Italy), Shallow Hal (Farrelly Brothers, 2002, USA) and East is East (D. O’Donnel, 1999, UK), and a new one, which includes further material, i.e., a full-length animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures (Bambi, D. Hand, 1942), an action film (Lethal Weapon 4, R. Donner, 1998), an adaptation from a literary masterpiece (Sense and Sensibility, A. Lee, 1996), a popular comedy series (two episodes of Sex and the City, Season 4, “The Agony and the Ex-tasy”, M.P. King, 2001 and “I heart NY”, M.P. King 2002) and an animated series (two episodes of The Simpsons, “Homer in the night”, R. Moore, 1989-90; “Homer the Moe”, J. Kamerman, 2001-02). Although comedy still predominates, the corpus is certainly comparatively more assorted and representative.