“Drop the F-bomb”: A diachronic analysis of taboo language in Italian film dubbing

In a fast-changing world, where culture is ever evolving, audiovisual translators are often confronted with the challenges of adapting, if not manipulating, film scripts in the name of the target culture or translation norms. This paper is aimed at exploring the linguistic choices made by Italian audiovisual translators and unveiling the difficulties encountered during the adaptation process. These difficulties, as this study will show, lie in the linguistic features of the target language or in certain taboos which are not accepted in the target culture. This paper will present a diachronic analysis of the rendering of taboo language in Italian film dubbing. Shortcomings, together with recent successful examples, will be highlighted and a critical contrastive analysis of film dialogues will be outlined, both in terms of compliance with the intent of the original film and adherence to source language. Finally, this paper will bring to the fore new trends in audiovisual translation, which seem to put translators back at the centre of the adaptation process.