Sekundenschlaf e il kabarett austriaco

Cabaret is deeply rooted in Austrian culture, particularly in Vienna, where nowadays this genre can once again live its glory days thanks to the effort of many cabaret comedians like Michael Niavarani, Roland Düringer, Alfred Dorfer and Andreas Vitásek. The starting point for this work is the show “Sekundenschlaf”, of the Viennese cabaret artist Andreas Vitásek. The core of the show is time, a dimension that is not fixed, but time can both fly as well as lengthen almost endlessly. Moreover, Vitásek also speaks about many current issues, like politics and the economic crisis, but the focus of the show is always the author’s personal experience. By means of this work I wanted to identify the difficulties of a potential translation of the show in order to find out whether such a translation might be possible and effective. I chose the examples that were more significant from a thematic and linguistic point of view, transcribed them directly from the DVD and analyzed them in detail. The translation of cabaret proves to be particularly difficult, as it is essential to convey the humorous elements to the target audience. Although humor belongs to all human beings, it is extremely specific for each culture and language. Therefore it is the job of a translator to manage to build a bridge between the source and the target culture. This work is divided into two major parts, one dedicated to cabaret as artistic genre, and the other one specifically dedicated to the show “Sekundenschlaf”. Through the analysis of the transcribed examples I have identified first the linguistic and then the thematic difficulties, pointing out which cultural elements are specific for Austrian culture and which elements can be understood (almost) everywhere.

L'interpretazione a distanza: Analisi di interazioni telefoniche mediate da interprete

Interpreter profession is currently changing: migration flows, the economic crisis and the fast development of ICTs brought unexpected changes in our societies and in traditional interpreting services all over. Remote interpreting (RI), which entails new methods such as videoconference interpreting and telephone interpreting (TI), has greatly developed and now sees interpreters working remotely and being connected to service users via videoconference set up or telephone calls. This dissertation aims at studying and analyzing the relevant aspects of interpreter-mediated telephone calls, describing the consequences for the interpreters in this new working field, as well as defining new strategies and techniques interpreters must develop in order to adjust to the new working context. For these purposes, the objectives of this dissertation are the following: to describe the settings in which RI is mostly used, to study the prominent consequences on interpreters and analyze real interpreter-mediated conversations. The dissertation deals with issues studied by the Shift project, a European project which aims at creating teaching materials for remote interpreting; the project started in 2015 and the University of Bologna and in particular the DIT - Department of Interpreting and Translation is the coordinating unit and promoting partner. This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 contains an outline of the major research related to RI and videoconference interpreting as well as a description of its main settings: healthcare, law, business economics and institution. Chapter 2 focuses on the physiological and psychological implications for interpreters working on RI. The concepts of absence, presence and remoteness are discussed; some opinions of professional interpreters and legal practitioners (LPs) concerning remote interpreting are offered as well. In chapter 3, telephone interpreting is presented; basic concepts of conversational analysis and prominent traits of interpreter-mediated calls are also explored. Chapter 4 presents the materials and methodology used for the analysis of data. The results, discussed in Chapter 5, show that telephone interpreting may be suitable for some specific contexts; however, it is clear that interpreters must get appropriate training before working in any form of RI. The dissertation finally offers suggestions for the implementation of training in RI for future interpreting students.