A Voice of Their Own

I have always been fascinated by translation: the way meaning changes from one language and culture to another, the potential for introducing new ideas or for manipulating content and the common assumption that originals and translations are the same, as if translation was an objective activity. As an academic, my work has focused on voices for as long as I can remember: first researching voices in novels, particularly in the works of Virginia Woolf in French translation (Bosseaux, 2007), then moving on to dubbing considering the voices of actors (Bosseaux, 2015) and now working on audiovisual testimonies focusing on how the voices of those who have been in vulnerable situations are rendered in translation. Behind my work has always been a desire to make sure that the voices of characters in novels or films as well as those of real individuals are represented as respectfully and powerfully as possible in translation.

This chapter sets the scene for my research on translating trauma and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) material. It presents key terms and theories needed to understand the ethical demands of translating AV testimonies. These key terms and theories are: GBV, trauma, vicarious traumatisation, ethics in TIS, trauma translation and translating emotions in order to identify gaps in research on translating emotional content. It also considers ethical stress and the need for codes of ethics and guidelines creation in AV translation. Finally, the chapter considers positionality and recognition, two crucial aspects for AV translators and researchers so as to fully address the ethical pressures of working with vulnerable individuals and understanding one’s own vulnerability.

This chapter focuses on the genre of documentary as Audiovisual (AV) testimonies and on the way this genre is currently translated, demonstrating the potential effects of Voice-Over (VO) and subtitling. A comparative analysis of two existing documentaries dealing with Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is used—one with a VO and one that is subtitled. When comparing originals and translations, parts of the methodology I developed in previous research (Bosseaux, 2015) is applied to describe voices and non-verbal elements to show how trauma and emotions are conveyed not only through words but also through paralinguistic information such as rhythm. I also consider the way in which survivors are framed in the original documentaries in terms of the camera angles used to frame their physical presence. These elements are used to identify how survivors narrate their traumatic experiences in originals and translations, and this is then linked to an ethics of AV translation.

My research aims relate to understanding how emotions can be translated in the audiovisual (AV) context so that subtitling and Voice-Over (VO) reflect more the oral quality of dialogues and testimonies. In order to fulfil one of my primary goals of the Ethical Translation project of working ethically, it was crucial to make sure all participants were treated with respect and that their voices were listened to throughout the project. Moreover, as the research is also concerned with understanding the impact of challenging material on subtitlers, different research methods were required. In this chapter, I present the different methods used to reach my research goals. I first consider the ethical component and then focus on the mixed methods approach chosen for the Ethical Translation project. These mixed methods include practice-based research and commissioning and co-creating a documentary, focus groups (FGs) organised at the start of the project to gather information and data on stakeholders’ expectations, e-questionnaires/surveys to inform our trajectory for ethical filming and translating and start drafting translation guidelines, and semi-structured interviews carried out with subtitlers working on the project to understand better subtitlers’ working conditions.

This chapter focuses on the challenges encountered on the Ethical Translation project and solutions found to tackle these challenges. It also considers the impact of translating challenging material on language professionals, the research impact of the Ethical Translation project, its limitations and avenues for further research. Susam-Saraeva explains that ‘[t]hroughout the industrialization period in the West and the rise of science as ‘“a belief system”, experiential and subjective knowledge has come to be deemed “inferior” to “expert”, “professional” or “objective” knowledge’ (2020, p. 93). However, disciplines including the medical humanities and social sciences have been questioning this viewpoint and like Susam-Saraeva, I think the field of TIS should also question these preconceived ideas. I therefore ‘invite translators/interpreters to both embrace their subjective/experiential knowledge and be aware of the difficulties involved in remaining open to the subjective/experiential knowledge of others’ (Susam-Saraeva, 2020, p. 93). Moreover, following Alvstad (2020, p. 191), I argue that AVT is as performative as any other types of translation, as AV translators transport texts to new contexts imbuing them with meanings that can be very distinct from those of originals. Considering translation as neutral and faithful reflects a simplistic understanding of the nature and function of translation. It is also a dangerous one. It is thus important to understand that we all come with our own bias, life experience and trauma and that we all bring this into our translation practice as well as our research. Translators and researchers are not impartial and it is crucial to consider the ways in which they work to understand better the full nature of translation and research activities.