The American Culture and Subtitles

Kristijan Nikolic

This paper will provide insight into the American culture and subtitles, i.e. how the culture is rendered in subtitles. The presentation will be based on personal experience from subtiteling many famous American programmes for Croatian TVs, such as The Oprah Show, The Survivor Series, The Wanderfalls, around 70 movies (the most famous of which are Sliver with Sharon Stone, Neil Jordan's In Dreams, The Game with Michael Douglas, etc.), a cartoon Kids from Room 402, Walker - the Texas Ranger, as well as many news, music and political programmes.
Subtitles impose constraints when it comes to time and space. Sometimes 50 % of the original text is lost and that imposes serious barriers. However, this unique combination of the original sound, picture and subtitles enables viewers to experience the original. The presentation will focus on cultural gaps and how these are rendered in subtitles. For example, how to translate expressions like "couch potato" or "Uncle Sam," which are specific to the culture.