GENDER STEREOTYPES IN THE LOCALIZATION OF VIDEO GAMES INTO PERSIAN: A CASE STUDY OF GRAND THEFTAUTO V

Audiovisual translation (AVT) is an area within Translation Studies which is concerned with how multimedia contexts are translated. Translation can become an important tool for transmitting certain ideologies and stereotypes portrayed in the original versions, meanwhile increasing attention is being paid to how multimedia contents can contribute to the production of social stereotypes and clichés (see Feral, ۲۰۱۱; De Marco,۲۰۱۲; De Marco ۲۰۰۶a,۲۰۰۶b). Subtitles constitute an important part of AVT; however, fewer studies have addressed the role it can play in the preservation and/or transmission of ideologies and stereotypes. The present study attempts to shed light on the representation of gendered terms in subtitles of video games, with a particular focus on the role that translation can play in reinforcing or mitigating gender stereotypes present in the Persian subtitles of Grand Theft Auto V. To this end, data were collected from the English subtitles of Grand Theft Auto V and their Persian counterparts suggested by Gamesub, a platform that provides unofficial but professional Persian subtitles for video games. The screen was recorded while playing the game with both English and Persian subtitles. Then, the English gender stereotypes were extracted from the subtitles and simultaneously compared to their Persian counterparts to determine if the stereotypes were preserved or altered during translation. The findings suggest that despite the translation of videos, a naturalizing approach to the translation of gender-related terms is more common in the subtitling of video games.

Keywords:

audiovisual translation , subtitling , gender stereotypes , localization of video games