Cultural references, cartoons and translation

Abstract

Translating involves manipulation. Every time a text is translated from a language into another, the translator must make decisions, that is, he or she has to manipulate the text. This manipulation is carried out at different levels (linguistic, cultural, ideological, etc.). In the case of audiovisual translation, this manipulation takes also place because of these reasons we have mentioned, but also because of the technical constraints which characterize audiovisual translation. On the other hand, in almost every text, written or audiovisual texts, cultural references of different sorts are found.
Cartoons are audiovisual texts created for a young public where different types of cultural references are found and which children do not always understand. In this article different ways of manipulation in the translation of cultural references in audiovisual texts for children are presented, what will show that there are not unified guidelines for translation of cultural references in general, but that there are no translation guidelines for a specific cultural reference either.