Anàlisi de la traducció per a doblatge al català de la sèrie Fawlty Towers

Abstract

British television comedies have always had a really good reception from the Catalan audience, mainly through the Catalan autonomous channel, TV3. In the process of translating to the target language, especially in the beginning of Catalan dubbing, the translator has to face the translation of linguistic elements as well as the humour of the dialogues keeping in mind the language model established by the aforesaid channel. In this essay I have analysed the dubbing translation from English to Catalan of the well-known British television comedy Fawlty Towers to observe how this translation fits in the context that has been previously described and to determine how this has affected the dubbing final result. In an effort to achieve final conclusions, l have chosen a wide range of examples that, as well as they show the translator's capacity of solving problems related to the translation itself, they also indicate his relationship with the linguistic model established by the Catalan television. The examples have been divided into linguistic and humorous aspects and the different strategies the translator has used in order to successfully process the information from English to Catalan have been determined. The results show how the translator has generally followed the autonomous channel guidelines and have created a rather genuine text in Catalan, (even though in certain occasions he moves away from the established language model) which works well in the target culture and maintains the humorous effect of the original version. However, I have found appropriate to suggest alternative translations in some cases l thought the target text could be improved according to the general criteria applied to the text by the translator. Finally, this essay demonstrates the importance of widening the study of dubbing processes keeping in mind the context in which they are originated.