Amateur Subtitling on the Internet

Abstract

The traditional understanding of the audiovisual translation mode known as subtitling is that it is intended primarily for cinema and television use, with the help of a visual component in the form of a (video) recording and the final programme script of the original, except perhaps for instantaneous, live subtitles (Kilborn, 1993). The ubiquity of the Internet, however, has given rise to a new kind of AVT which I refer to here as ‘amateur subtitling’. Amateur subtitling is not unrelated to fansubs (http://www.fansubs.net/fsw/general), subtitles of various Japanese anime productions made unofficially by fans for non-Japanese viewers. Despite their dubious legal status, fansubs have been in existence since the late 1980s (O’Hagan, 2003). The rationale behind the decision to undertake the translation in the form of fansubs and amateur subtitling is largely the same: to make a contribution in an area of particular interest and to popularise it in other countries, making it accessible to a broader range of viewers/readers, who belong to different linguistic communities.