Standardised language on English screens - the case of "The Brilliant Friend"TV series

dialects constitute a significant barrier to interlingual transfer (Guillot 2010, 2016) and varieties of language in source texts such as dialect, emphatic devices including intonation, code-switching etc. (Hatim and Mason1997; Díaz-Cintas and Remael 2007) are almost never rendered in AVT, particularly in subtitling, due to the technical restrictions imposed by the medium – the well-known space and time constraints. Although the spoken and colloquial varieties are often a narrative device and tool for developing characters, and often an integral part of their identities, in subtitling linguistic varieties of a geographical, ethnic and social type are generally translated into standard target language. As a consequence, elements of social classes, geographical variations, and relationship among characters are neutralized, which notably undercuts the specificity of their voice(s). A case in point is the conservative approach (Berezowski 1997) adopted in ‘The Brilliant Friend’ TV series, the recent television adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s hugely successful Neapolitan Novels. Differently from the tetralogy – where very little dialect appears –‘My Brilliant Friend’ TV series restored 1950s dialect-speaking (up to 70% of the first season contains conversations in Neapolitan dialect). Here Neapolitan dialect becomes a compelling narrative device highly instrumental to represent/develop characters, heighten/elaborate their feelings, situate them in time, space, and social context. More importantly, Neapolitan dialect is crucial to voice the complexity of the cultural and linguistic challenge of representing the Napoletanità – the essence of being Neapolitan – which is a character in itself. Nonetheless, the TV series only airs standard Italian subtitles for non-Neapolitan Italians and standard English subtitles for English-speaking audience. By investigating the role of Neapolitan dialect in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels and the no-dialect policy of its TV series subtitles, this study aims to address (some of) the theoretical and practical problems faced by screen translation of regional varieties and to offer a contribution to the area of study of dialects and languages of minorities in AVT. In a wider perspective my study intends not only to highlight that this no-dialect policy prompts new questions about how the global cultures of reception are gendered, but, more importantly, to show how the silencing of dialects may equate to cultural erasure.