The reception of swearing in film dubbing: a cross-cultural case study

Abstract

Swear words express and arouse emotions and due to their taboo-contravening origin are charged with an offensive potential. By mirroring the functions they perform in real life, they contribute to the makeup of audiovisual language and intensify filmic speech. Although swearing has long attracted the attention of audiovisual translation research, little consideration has been paid to viewers’ reactions. To address this gap, the present paper engages with the reception of swear words in film dubbing, while exploring the differences across two distinct linguacultures. Through a questionnaire-based methodology, it compares two groups of Italian and Spanish university students and their reactions to dubbed vis-à-vis domestic film clips. The results suggest that both Italian and Spanish groups’ tolerance for swearing onscreen is quite high. The Spanish participants, however, appear to be more lenient towards this phenomenon and more permissive with the staging of potentially offensive language in home productions. By contrast, Italian participants show similar levels of acceptance when they react to swearing in dubbing and Italian filmic speech. The two groups’ overall responses and their diverging orientations are discussed with reference to the cross-linguistic and intercultural dimensions of film viewing and distinctive preferences in audiovisual discourse.