Multilingual Films in Translation

MULTILINGUAL FILMS: A DEFINITION

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines "multilingual" as involving several or many languages and as a person who is able to speak more than two languages, thus distinguishing it from "bilingual". Multilingualism has been studied in different fields and has been approached from different perspectives, with a variety of terms and meanings used by different scholars to refer to this phenomenon. A distinction is made between individual multilingualism, a characteristic of a single speaker, and societal multilingualism, which is a sort of polylingual reality made of different monolingual speakers. Multilingualism refers to the coexistence, contact, and interaction of different languages at the individual or societal level. It is a complex phenomenon, which reflects the social, linguistic, and cultural changes resulting from globalization, mobility, and technology. This complexity is also due to the difficulty of clearly ascertaining where.

one language begins and where it ends, since languages are not completely distinct entities. Multilingualism is an aspect of contemporary society, where a full dichotomy between monolingual and multilingual realities is no longer possible. Globalization has had a significant effect on the language itself that is used as a means of communication: languages travel and mingle more and more freely. Globalization has also a powerful impact on people's cross-cultural perceptions. One of the consequences of the movement of people in a multilingual world is a shift between languages and cultures. Language contact has created new mixtures and new hybrids, leading to the proliferation of different language varieties. The idea of unilingual nation-state becomes even more idealistic as the languages of new immigrants contribute to create a condition of linguistic plurality and cultural diversity. In the field of literary studies, different scholars have analysed multilingualism as it is represented in

Heterolingualism= term introduced by Grutman (1996) to refer the presence in a literary text of foreign languages as well as variations in the main language.

Delabastita analyses Shakespeare's polyglot play King Henry V, exploring the challenges that it poses to the translator.

Grutman and Delabastita view multilingualism in texts as a complex phenomenon involving not only languages but also their varieties, in the form of dialects, sociolects or idiolects.

Following Delabastita, the expression multilingual film is used here in a broader sense, referring to films that contain both interlingual and intralingual variants, such as dialects, sociolects, and different varieties of a language.

The use of different languages or different varieties of a language is also part of a new trend in filmmaking, reflecting an interest in representing the conditions of migrants and diasporic existence.

FICTIONAL REPRESENTATIONS OF MULTILINGUALISM

Literary critics have studied multilingualism

Come elemento di rappresentazione fittizia. Nella polilinguismo come realtà e la traduzione come mimesi, Stenberg delinea tre procedure di mimesi eterolingue nei testi: 1. Restrizione referenziale: consiste nella rappresentazione di una singola comunità linguisticamente uniforme i cui modelli di linguaggio corrispondono a quelli del pubblico implicito. L'oggetto rappresentato e i mezzi rappresentativi sono monolingui (es. Jane Austen). 2. Corrispondenza veicolare: è una strategia rappresentativa utilizzata per mostrare l'eterolingualismo: anziché evitare la diversità linguistica o il conflitto, li accetta. L'oggetto rappresentato e i mezzi rappresentativi sono polilingui (es. "Pigmalione" di Bernard Shaw, una commedia polidialeattale incentrata sulla relazione tra il linguaggio di una persona e la sua identità). Viene definita da Delabastita come una "tecnica mimetica" che consiste nell'assegnazione di lingue specifiche o varietà linguistiche a personaggi e gruppi di personaggi in conformità con il

Historical Reality Represented

3. Homogenizing convention: sacrifices linguistic verisimilitude for the linguistic requirements of the intended audience. The represented object is polylingual while the representational means is unilingual. (ex. Antony and Cleopatra, where English is spoken regardless of historical accuracy or geolinguistic reality). The fictional work makes a sort of unspoken pact with the readers or viewers. The willing suspension of disbelief is a temporary willingness to suspend all judgement and scepticism about the realistic nature and historical accuracy of a text's fictional universe. Suspension of disbelief is central in any kind of story-telling: this act of suspension of critical judgement also applies to dubbing.

Stenberg's categorization of representational strategies sheds light on the fact that in literary as well as audiovisual texts, real-world multilingualism may be in some cases toned down or even neutralized. He identifies four types of mimesis, which

can coexist and interact within a text:

1. Selective reproduction -> a sort of mimetic synecdoche, an intermittent quotation of the original heterolingual discourse;
2. Verbal transposition -> which suggests polylingual and heterolingual speech through interference;
3. Conceptual reflection -> suggests heterolingualism sociocultural topics, realia, attitudes, form of address, or paralinguistic features;
4. Explicit attribution -> consists of indicating the language in which the speech was originally made through a metalinguistic comment.

Bleichenbacher analyses a corpus of Hollywood films characterized by replacement strategies or by the presence of foreign languages. His taxonomy of replacement strategies include:

• Elimination: entails total replacement (see homogenizing convention),
• Signalization: consists of the explicit naming of a language through a metalinguistic comment made by a character or by a narrator,
• Evocation: involves the representation of the replaced language.

Through the base language which shows interference from the replaced language. Similar to transposition, interference mainly concerns phonology and lexis. Bleichenbacher points out that these replacement strategies are often combined with partial presence: words or phrases where the other language is not replaced, such as background utterances, prayers and songs, or in written form (public signs). A strategy of partial presence is unrealistic code-switching, whereby characters speak the replaced language, usually at the beginning of the film, and then switch back to the base language.

THE MULTILINGUAL TURN

From the 1980s onwards the coexistence of languages and accents within the space of films has characterized a significant and growing portion of contemporary cinematic production. During 80s-90s the number of films dealing with communication in more than one language increased substantially. Since the mid 90s, even Hollywood productions began to include multilingualism and to portray

multicultural realities or situations of language contact. The presence of multilingualism without any form of translation may be more challenging for the audience, but this depends on their knowledge and on the function multilingualism has within the film. Polyglossia on screen is found not only in films, but also in TV series, which display a range of different languages and language uses. "Lost" provided an interesting example of this phenomenon. Several characters can speak three or four languages beside English and at least sixteen different languages are spoken on the show. Multilingualism is displayed in a wide range of different shows, from fantasy-drama, action and science-fiction drama, mystery drama, crime drama, to comedy drama and comedy. Although these shows are characterized by different forms and functions of multilingualism. The tendency to include multilingualism is also being seen in recent Italian productions, which increasingly display the presence of different.

Languages and/or varieties of languages, and focus on multicultural themes such as immigration or integration.

ARE MULTILINGUAL FILMS A GENRE?

Wahl describes the polyglot films as a genre that encompasses films that may seem to have nothing in common, but where the functions of verbal language go far beyond the mediation of content through dialogue. Multilingual films may belong to different genres. Wahl proposes a categorization into different subgenres, which are not fixed categories, according to the evolution of the genre itself.

The first subgenre is migration film, which emphasizes the characters' adaptation or integration, whether successful or not, to a foreign society and language. Typical issues highlighted in these films are the difficult process of learning a foreign language and generational conflicts. These films are also referred to as diasporic.

The second subgenre is named existential and encompasses films which focus on existential questions and philosophical meditations.

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as the (im)possibility of successful verbal communication (ex. Le Mépris is about an interpreter mediating between an American producer and a French scriptwriter).

Il terzo sottogenere è il film sulla globalizzazione, che ha come valori simbolici la simultaneità e lo scambio. I recenti film sulla globalizzazione si concentrano sull'omogeneizzazione del mondo (ex. Babel presenta i problemi di comunicazione effettivi che il mondo contemporaneo vive nonostante lo sviluppo tecnologico).

Il quarto genere è il film sulla fratellanza o l'alleanza, che promuove il concetto di uguaglianza tra le persone, specialmente quando coinvolte in conflitti e confronti. L'ostilità della guerra viene narrata a livello della qualità simbolica del linguaggio, che viene utilizzato per simboleggiare la comprensione e la mancata comprensione tra culture diverse (ex. Dances with Wolves e Saving Private Ryan).

Il quinto genere è il film coloniale, che mira a rappresentare i poli simbolici del colonialismo, enfatizzando il ruolo vitale del linguaggio per il colonizzatore.

and the colonized. They are about people who are treated like foreigners in their own country (ex. The New World tells the story of the English exploration of Virginia).

Multilingual films shouldn't be considered a specific genre, since potentially any kind of film can be multilingual.

THE FUNCTIONS OF MULTILINGUALISM

Fictional multilingualism is a complex phenomenon characterized by formal and functional variability. The functional component of fictional multilingualism should be carefully considered in each case and context. Stenberg mentions two limiting cases:

1. Multilingual representation may be subordinated to the dramatic,
2. Rhetorical needs of the fictive action, such as producing humour, labelling or characterizing a person or milieu

The opposite extreme described by Stenberg is when fictive reality is subordinated to polylingual representation (ex. Lord of the Rings, which provided a fictional world and a series of characters who could speak the languages invented by the author).