Translation of the Comic in the Films of Wes Anderson (based on English and Ukrainian)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to defining the specific features of the expression of the comic in the auteur film “The Grand Budapest Hotel” by the American director and screenwriter Wes Anderson, as well as to the analysis of the translation of the comic on the material of the authentic movie dialogue, its dubbing and subtitling in Ukrainian. The relevance of our research is determined by the increased interest in the auteur films, especially in the genre of comedy and comedy drama, as well as by insufficient research on the representation of the functional types of the comic in Ukrainian translations for authentic films. The article provides definitions of the comic types and describes common difficulties in translating functional types of the comic and difficulties caused by the peculiarities of audiovisual translation. Common linguistic translation difficulties include translating the comic expressed by culturally-labeled lexical units or allusions to little-known phenomena. Typical and common for dubbing and subtitling extralinguistic difficulties include the need for keeping to the timeline. Dubbing also implies the achievement of phonetic synchronization, while subtitling presupposes the observance of the readable length of the subtitle. The article presents five principles with the help of which Wes Anderson achieves comic effect in the original movie dialogue. In general, these principles are a careful selection of time and place of the events and disruption of the characters in unusual situations. The article argues that in order to create a humorous effect, Wes Anderson uses both non-verbal humor expressed by elements of non-verbal communication, e.g. movements, glances, facial expressions, gestures, and verbally expressed comic, i.e. humor, irony, satire, and sarcasm. Each of the principles for achieving the comic effect was illustrated by the examples from the original movie dialogue and the analysis of their dubbing and subtitling in Ukrainian.