Investigating the relation between the subtitling of sensitive audiovisual material and subtitlers’ performance: an empirical study

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of a survey designed to investigate the emotions experienced by subtitlers who work on sensitive audiovisual material and whether these emotions affect their subtitling performance. For the purposes of this paper, the term sensitive audiovisual material concerns audiovisual texts which deal with controversial and emotive topics, such as the abuse of people and/or animals, war, torture, and death, among others. The concept of performance is taken to broadly refer to the subtitling process and does not cover metrics of quality assurance. The paper focuses on two aspects of the study: (1) the emotions that were most commonly reported to be experienced by the subtitlers, along with the aspects of the audiovisual text that seem to trigger them, and (2) the ways in which this emotional impact affects the subtitlers’ performance. Discussion of the latter aspect draws on examples provided by the subtitlers that illustrate how their subtitling process changes due to the experienced emotional impact. The paper concludes by putting forward training suggestions for more effective handling of emotional impact, which may provide the platform for further research on this topic.