Song Translation in the Audiovisual Context: An Analysis of Norwegian Translations of Diegetic and Intra-Diegetic Songs in Disney Movies

Dubbed song translations are complex texts governed by many constraints on various levels. This study explores how Disney songs are dubbed into Norwegian and looks at the differences in the way different types of songs governed by different types of constraints are translated. Examples of different types of songs in film are diegetic and intra-diegetic songs (Gorbman, 1980:196; Heldt, 2013:61; Winters, 2010:231). Diegetic and intra-diegetic songs are governed by the same song translation constraints but different audiovisual constraints (i.e. lip synchronisation in diegetic songs). To answer these questions, I qualitatively analysed the two songs from The Lion King 2 (1998), both with a more general descriptive purpose (looking at rhythm, rhyme, AVC, and lip sync) and as predictors of the translators’ selection of microstrategies. Then, I looked at only the latter aspect in a larger selection of songs, from a quantitative angle. The findings show that there is a great difference in the way the two types of songs are dubbed both in terms of applied microstrategies and in terms of macrostrategies reflecting the overall strategy of the translator (translation-orientation towards the source- or target-text). The microstrategy most frequently applied in the translation of intra-diegetic songs proved to be DIRECT TRANSFER and taken together, the microstrategies applied showed an overall tendency towards source-text orientation (Schjoldager et al. 2005) in most of the translations of this type of song. The most frequently applied microstrategy in the translation of diegetic songs, on the other hand, proved to be the PARAPHRASE and taken together, the microstrategies applied in this type of song showed an overall tendency towards target-text orientation. The tendency regarding text orientation was clearest in the diegetic songs, a result that may indicate that the combined constraints of all the aspects of dubbed song translation influence translators’ choice of translation strategie