Translating Britishness in the French Versions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Abstract

The way fictional characters are created and presented in texts, whether written or audiovisual, is called characterisation. In this article, I propose to identify and further define characterisation in the framework of Audiovisual Translation. The material chosen for investigation is the American TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In French, there are two translated versions, one dubbed, the other subtitled. The case study consists of one passage of the episode “Tabula Rasa” (Season 6, episode 8). In this episode the characters lose their memories after a spell has been cast on them. As the episode unfolds each character slowly recovers their identity. In the analysis I focus on the way the protagonists come across first in the original and then in the translated versions. My ultimate goal is to identify shifts in the presentation of the characters and any possible patterns in the translation strategies applied.