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An approach to audio description of fear in Spain. A corpus-based study of Spanish horror films

María López Rubio

Title
An approach to audio description of fear in Spain. A corpus-based study of Spanish horror films

Abstract
Horror is a genre that is directly linked to emotions and to the intention of disturbing or scaring the public. Most audio description (AD) standards agree that this service should provide the audience a filmic experience similar to that offered by the original products, but they also state that AD should be objective and be limited to describing what is on screen. Only in the last years has subjective AD started to be suggested by some scholars. In this contribution, we will show how horror has been dealt with in the AD of a selection of clips from six Spanish horror films. Based on the proposals by Ramos Caro (2013) and Romero-Muñoz (2023), the degree of objectiveness and subjectiveness in the corpus is measured. The results of the analysis show that most descriptions are objective, although subjectiveness is also present in a high percentage (40.37%). Through the corpus analysis, a number of non-subjective elements potentially contributing to the skopos (Reiss & Vermeer, 1984) of horror films were identified. Finally, further studies focusing on the influence of the voicing on AD reception are suggested in order to continue to shed light on a subject that is still little explored.

Keywords
Audiovisual translation, media accessibility, audio description, horror, Spanish cinema

DOI 10.17462/para.2024.02.03

September 25, 2024
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