Examining Cultural Differences in Audiovisual Translation of Films

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine cultural differences in the audiovisual translation (AVT) of films from English to Russian, focusing on strategies employed by individual and institutional translators. The study aims to identify challenges in transposing cultural elements, evaluate translation quality using House’s Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) model, and compare approaches to preserving cultural authenticity. Through a qualitative, product-based analysis, the research investigates two Russian translations of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction: Dmitry Puchkov’s (“Goblin”) fan translation and the official NTV channel’s dubbed version. Key cultural elements, including idioms, slang, cultural references, and humor, were analyzed to assess strategies such as domestication, foreignization, omission, and explicitation. Results reveal that Goblin’s translation prioritizes domestication, adapting content to resonate with Russian audiences through colloquial language and cultural substitutions, albeit occasionally introducing overt errors. In contrast, NTV’s institutional approach leans toward foreignization, adhering to formal standards but often neutralizing cultural nuances to comply with censorship norms. Both versions struggled with idioms and culturally specific references, leading to distortions or omissions that impacted fidelity. House’s TQA model identified covert and overt errors in register and genre alignment, highlighting mismatches in preserving Tarantino’s postmodern tone and intertextual layers. Recommendations include comparative analysis of other Tarantino films, audience reception studies, and adapting the methodology for non-English language pairs such as Kazakh-Russian. This research contributes to AVT studies by highlighting distinctions between institutional translations and individual translators, revealing their impacts on cultural representation and the underlying reasons. By applying House’s Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) model, the study demonstrates the efficacy of functional pragmatic analysis in evaluating translation quality, illustrating how overt and covert errors shape the final translated product.