7. M ilevica Inga

scientific journal of the modern education & research institute ONE POSSI BILIT Y TO STUD Y NATIONAL VALUES IN AUDIO VISUAL TRANSLATION RESEARCH

nga Milevica (inga.milevica@gmail.com)

lberta ollege, Riga

bstract

A researcher specializing in audiovisual translation often encounters problems related to national (socially cultural) values and value orientations. Most likely, within the framework of his research, an audiovisual translation researcher cannot conduct a qualitative, ambitious study of national values, their differences, especially over a certain period of time. One successful solution can be found in the field of sociological research: the World Values Survey (WVS), and this possibility will be discussed in the article from the point of view of audiovisual translation.

Keywords: Audiovisual Translation, National Values, World Values Survey.

It is safe to say that interdisciplinarity has evolved from the new scientific paradigm into a stable feature of modern science, but it is also safe to say that its mention often becomes a student’s work, as well as the formality and common place of scientific articles: interdisciplinarity is being used to justify the topicality or novelty of a research, or the chosen method, but in the research design itself, the interdisciplinarity does not materialize in the practical sense.

In the previous article, author described on the Latvian research material how little attention was paid to audiovisual translation in the Latvian humanities: for twenty years, the interest of academic science – unlike the interests of audiovisual practitioners – has not addressed audiovisual translation issues: one article has been published in Latvian collections of articles, which has an insight into the terminology and methodology of audiovisual translation and presents a highly formal review of translation errors of film titles. [1, pp. 24-25] Translation science, being interdisciplinary in nature, is currently strongly directed in fiction research direction, namely in the direction of the scientist’s philological «comfort zone», i.e. in the opposite of interdisciplinarity zone: translation science, in preaching interdisciplinarity, often moves in the opposite direction from interdisciplinarity and conducts research in highly dominant fiction discourses. [1, p. 26]

It is undeniable that interdisciplinary research means more investment, more researchers and their collaboration models, more time, more projects, more agreements, etc., which are also constraints on such research, especially in a situation where science is not adequately funded at the level of specific research institutes and universities, and at the level of national science and education policy. But at the same time, all these constraints also point out the direction in which solutions should be looked for. One such solution that does not require investment, a large number of researchers or even a lot of time, will be discussed in this article from the point of view of audiovisual translation science.

A researcher specializing in audiovisual translation often encounters problems related to national (socially cultural) values and value orientations, for example, different types of changes in the translation of audiovisual texts the researcher can explain by differences in national

worldviews, differences in values and value orientations: profound transformations of feature film titles, change of different conversation topics in dialogues, elements of taboos and euphemism, ways of depicting models of mutual relations, etc.

Most likely, within the framework of his research, an audiovisual translation researcher cannot conduct a qualitative, ambitious study of national values, their differences, especially over a certain period of time. Accordingly, the results of other research should be addressed – intercultural communication research, partially – cognitive science, and sociology and sociolinguistics research. There are many results of such research and developed methodology, for example, the well-known Geert Hofstede approach, which is based on four parameters: individualism-collectivism; uncertainty avoidance; power distance (strength of social hierarchy) and masculinity-femininity (task-orientation versus person-orientation). G. Hofstede suggests explaining these parameters through a questionnaire, which is sometimes one of the biggest limitations of interdisciplinary research: adequately large samples for sociological research are time-consuming and resource-demanding work, and the selection made by philologists could be very incorrect, for example, if it involves mostly their own student philologists and a narrow circle of close acquaintances. Another limitation is related to another type of problem. In case the audiovisual translation study is not devoted to two international languages (e.g. English-German, English-Russian), but to several languages, some of which do not belong to the «big» languages (e.g. English-Russian-Latvian), then a expressed methodological problem arises: there are incomparably fewer studies on the national values of Latvians in terms of the national worldview, than on the national values of the USA, Great Britain and Russia. The third major problem is also the different research designs, different research materials, etc. of national value research, which prevent the correct use of the results of this variegated research for audiovisual translation. These three limitations (which could be accompanied by a number of other limitations) become a reason for the researcher to choose not to carry out this part of the study himself, but to use other studies and software developed by sociological methods.

And now, as the best Hollywood movie traditions, have to say: there is a solution. One successful solution can be found in the field of sociological research: the World Values Survey (WVS). The WVS is a sociologists’ project (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp) that aimed to explore values around the world and determine their impact on social and cultural life. The most important researcher and inspirer of the project was Ronald Inglehart, after whom, by the way, research diagrams are named. The project has already conducted research in 97 countries (2017 data).

The values in this study are divided into two categories, which are based on the anti-polar principle: 1) survival values: economic or physical security, material values, intolerance to other opinions, xenophobia, low appreciation of freedom and rights, willingness to accept authoritarianism, trust, tendency to believe in omnipotence of science and technology; and self-realization values: high evaluation of personality, freedoms, human rights, material benefits, success, gender rights, frugality worries; 2) traditional values: religions, respect for the power of values, absolute standards, social conformism, preference for open political conflicts; and secular-rational values: rational behavior, success, preference for the secular creation of the state, religion’s low role (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp)

Survival values, as the project shows, are typical for post-communist countries in Eastern Europe, including Asia and Africa, while self-realization values are typical of Western European countries and English-speaking countries. The results of the research showed that there are correlations between a high level of self-realization values and the level of state welfare. Countries of traditional values are the USA, Ireland, Latin American countries, India. [2]

The WVS project study allows not only to use one of the most valuable value studies in the world, but also to track changes in values. Thus, these changes can be traced in the example of the USA, Russia and Latvia. Survival and self-realization value rates have changed over the last 10 years. The self-realization rate for US culture in 1996 was closer to -1.5, while in 2017 it decreased: closer to -1.0. The survival rate for Russian culture in 1996 was closer to -0.2, but in 2017 it is between -1.5 and -1.0. For Latvia, the survival rate in 1996 was closer to -1.5, but in 2017 it is already between -1.0 and 0.5, which means, the survival rates in Russia and Latvia are decreasing, with Russia having this rate more pronounced than Latvia. The rates of traditional and secular values in the three cultures have also changed over the last ten years. US culture is characterized by traditional values: in 1996, as shown in Figure 1, the rate is closer to 0.5, while in 2017 – see Figure 2, it is already approaching 0.0. Russia demonstrates the opposite trend: in

1996 the indicator was 1.0, but in 2017 the rate of secular values decreased – 0.5. In 1996, Latvia had a low rate of traditional values – closer to 0.5, but in 2017 the rate of secular values has grown the most: closer to 1.0. [2]

Thus, WVS is a sociological research material that can contribute to audiovisual translation science in terms of national cultural values: whether and how they affect translations, how their changes were reflected in audiovisual translations over twenty years: during those twenty years of audiovisual translation in independent Latvia. The WVS will not become a guarantor of interdisciplinarity in research, which should also not be seen as negative: it is more efficient, ethical and fair to use professional and reliable material than to create a weak and unconvincing illusion of interdisciplinarity on your own.

eferences

1.

2. Milevica, Inga (2020). On Non-existent of Audiovisual Translation Studies in Latvia (According to Material of Scientific Paper collection). Modernization of Teaching Profession: Approaches, Best practices, Challenges. Scientific Journal of the Modern Education & Research Institute. Nr 12 (2020). 23-26 pp. World Values Survey site. Available on internet: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp.