Quaderns. Revista de Traducció 27, 2020 125-141 ISSN 1138-5790 (paper), ISSN 2014-9735 (digital) Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English into European Spanish: four case studies based on a selection of Tarantino’s films José Javier Ávila-Cabrera Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Departamento de Estudios Ingleses: Lingüística y Literatura 28040 Madrid josejaav@ucm.es ORCID: 0000-0001-5338-3584 Abstract The combination of profanity and blasphemy can be said to be one of the most delicate taboo categories to deal with on the screen. It is in the context of audiovisual translation (AVT) where professionals have to make challenging decisions when transferring these elements. Thus, should audiovisual translators be faithful to the source text or is it legitimate that they tone down the load of profanity and blasphemy? This paper describes the subtitling into European Spanish of a corpus composed of some of Tarantino’s films on the grounds of profane and blas- phemous phrases which could provoke a strong reaction from the audience. Among the main goals of this paper are: scrutinising (1) if the religious phrases under analysis are transferred faithfully; and (2) whether or not cases of blasphemy in the target text have been encountered. In a nutshell, this study aims to explore the treatment of profanity and blasphemy in the subti- tles produced for the Spanish audience. Keywords: blasphemy and profanity; interlingual subtitling; Descriptive Translation Studies; faithfulness; self-censorship Resum. Profanitat i blasfèmia en la subtitulació de l’anglès al castellà europeu: quatre estudis de cas basats en una selecció de les pel·lícules de Tarantino La combinació de la profanitat i la blasfèmia es pot dir que és una de les categories de tabús més delicades per tractar a la pantalla. És en el context de la traducció audiovisual (TAV) on els pro- fessionals han de prendre decisions desafiants a l’hora de transferir aquests elements. Per tant, els traductors audiovisuals haurien de ser fidels al text original o és legítim que suavitzin la càrrega de la profanitat i la blasfèmia? En aquest article es descriu la subtitulació a l’espanyol europeu d’un corpus format per algunes de les pel·lícules de Tarantino a causa de sintagmes profans i blasfems que poden provocar una forta reacció del públic. Entre els objectius principals d’aquest article es troben: examinar (1) si els sintagmes religiosos analitzats es transfereixen fidelment; i (2) si s’han trobat o no casos de blasfèmia en el text de destinació. En resum, aquest estudi pretén explorar el tractament de la profanitat i la blasfèmia en els subtítols produïts per a l’audiència espanyola. mailto:josejaav%40ucm.es?subject= 126 Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 José Javier Ávila-Cabrera Paraules clau: blasfèmia i profanitat; subtitulació interlingüística; estudis de traducció descrip- tiva; fidelitat; autocensura Summary 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical framework 3. Research design 4. The corpus and data analysis 5. Results and discussion 6. Conclusions Bibliographical references Filmography Appendix 1. Introduction Tarantino’s films are a good source for analysing a myriad of terms which can be considered offensive, inasmuch as they are aimed at insulting, releasing anger, etc., and taboo terms, those words which may be unwelcome on the basis of the addressee and medium. This paper focuses on religious referents which appear as profanities, that is, references to Jesus Christ, God, etc. in vain, and also blasphemies, which in certain cases would go a step further in provoking a significant reaction from the audience, given that these religious figures are vili- fied. Accordingly, attention is paid to the manner some of Tarantino’s films were subtitled in their DVD/Blu-ray versions for the market in Spain: Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Inglourious Basterds (2009) and The Hateful Eight (2015). Following the Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) paradigm (Toury 2014), this study aims to describe the way religious referents were transferred to Euro- pean Spanish subtitles with no prescription on the manner the subtitles were pro- duced. As far as the type of research is concerned, this study is based on quantitative data in the form of the instances looked into via several case studies. The final aim is based on two research questions whose main aim is assessing whether the subtitles tend to be faithful to the screenplay or some type of self- censorship or (ideological) manipulation has taken place, and if blasphemies are encountered in the European Spanish subtitles. 2. Theoretical framework The main topic of this study revolves around the subtitlers’ discretion when hav- ing to choose between different options when transferring religious referents to a different culture and language. Two main areas concern this study: (1) religion which can be considered a taboo topic on the screen, especially when profanity and blasphemy are part of the equation; and (2) subtitling as an Audiovisual Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 127 Translation (AVT) mode which condenses information in an attempt to transfer the gist of the original. 2.1. Religion and taboos The origins of the word taboo date back to 1768 when explorer Captain James Cook set out on an expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He adapted this term, from the original Togan language, into English. In the words of Hughes (2006: 462), “the adjectival use referred to physical locales that were sacred [...] gods, kings, priests, or chiefs, and therefore prohibited for general use”. Exploring the roots of the word taboo, it concerns forces and creatures that are not to be named, espe- cially the name of God, the Devil, death, etc. Nowadays, taboo terms are used to describe a variety of categories such as religion, sex, death, excretion, etc. which may not be welcome in certain contexts, cultures and languages. Religious references can be considered a cultural aspect which defines indi- viduals’ identities. For example, in the Muslim world, Allah cannot be represent- ed in art, therefore aniconism and proscription are the norm in the case of Islam. There are other religions in which mentioning the Lord’s name in vain, i.e. God or Jesus Christ, is considered a sin, as is the case in Catholicism and, what is more, vilifying the name of religious figures among Christians can be considered highly offensive depending on the addressee, medium and mode. Hughes (2006) highlights the direct reference to God as a taboo deed, such as in Judaism and Brahmanism. As taboo elements, there is also a variety of cultures where there is no room for swearwords, as is the case with the Native Americans, the Japanese, the Malayans and most Polynesians. This is the reason why every religion has its own idiosyncrasies as every culture can observe the same phenomenon from dif- ferent angles and perspectives. Cultural identity is therefore a crucial element when hearing or reading terms which are prone to offend the audience. 2.2. Research on taboo language and AVT Having to deal with swearwords and taboos can entail an extra difficulty in AVT since some of the decisions made by audiovisual translators can make a strong impact on the audience. This can be the case of blasphemies in European Span- ish, for example. Sometimes it is the client who provides translators with a black list of terms to be avoided but this is not always the case. The way to modulate certain taboo terms is addressed by Allan and Burridge (2006: 1) in the form of “orthophemism (straight talking), euphemism (sweet talking) and dysphemism (speaking offensively)”. In this sense, these authors acknowledge political correctness and prescription as elements of taboo conduct. Applying these concepts to religious referents, Jesus would be an orthophemism, in order to avoid this direct term Lord could be used as a euphemism and Christ! —as an exclamation— would be a dysphemism (ibid: 34). There are, conse- quently, diverse manners to intensify the terms to be used in accordance with the linguistic context. 128 Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 José Javier Ávila-Cabrera Different phrases have been considered by diverse scholars to define terms which can overlap each other, for example dirty language (Jay 1980), strong lan- guage (Lung 1998), bad language (McEnery 2006), foul language (Wajnryb 2005), rude language (Hughes 2006), taboo language (Allan and Burridge 2006), emotionally charged language (Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007), offensive lan- guage (Díaz Cintas 2012), or offensive and taboo language (Ávila-Cabrera 2015a), among others. In order to draw a distinction between offensive and taboo language, the following definitions are regarded as follows: Offensive language refers to those linguistic terms or expressions made up of swearwords, expletives, etc., which are normally considered derogatory and/or insulting [and] taboo language is related to terms that are not considered appropri- ate or acceptable with regard to the context, culture, language and/or medium where they are uttered. (Ávila-Cabrera 2016b: 28) Dealing with religious terms is therefore a taboo topic when profanity and blasphemy interact in the dialogue exchanges. In order to distinguish between these two terms, profanity is defined as “(an example of) showing no respect for a god or religion, especially through language” (Cambridge Dictionary: online), while blasphemy is defined by the New Oxford Dictionary of English as “the action or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things” (2001: 185). Hughes (2006: 31) also refers to blasphemy as “the contemptuous use of religious symbols or names, either by swearing or abuse” and pinpoints that in British English usage, profanity is used less frequently while in American Eng- lish it is more used when generally referring to swearing. For the purposes of this paper and in an attempt to avoid lexical ambiguities, profanity is regarded as mentioning religious figures in vain while blasphemy is considered the abuse of the aforementioned figures. It is in this context of subtitling where audiovisual professionals will have to make difficult decisions. For instance, in an attempt to avoid a faithful rendering of the blasphemy Jesus fucking Christ, they may include some offensive terms to balance the load of this phrase, therefore avoiding a more abusive direct allusion to Jesus Christ. When a faithful translation for the aforementioned phrase is viewed in its written form by a Spanish audience, it could have a stronger impact than when orally uttered, as written language can often be more powerful than oral language (Díaz Cintas 2001). When there is some sort of manipulation of the original, in which the client is not involved, Díaz Cintas (2012) refers to this edulcorating formula as ideological manipulation, which can also be referred to as self-censorship, that is, a technique or solution chosen by the audiovisual translator to avoid a direct insult to God or Jesus Christ. Although research on taboo language in AVT is not very extensive, more studies have been conducted in the last few decades which delve into this field (Díaz Cintas 2001, 2012; Mattsson 2006; Martínez Sierra 2015; Soler Pardo 2015; Ávila-Cabrera 2015a, 2015b, 2016a, 2016b). However, there are signifi- cantly fewer studies on the presence of religious terms in AVT. Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 129 ElShiekh (2016) analyses both cultural and technical problems when subtitling religious elements from English into Arabic in the case of some channels of the Arab Gulf. The researcher sheds some light on the Arabic equivalents chosen to transfer English religious terms, which include God, Satan, angels, and demons. Taboo language in Persian fansubbing is delved into by Khoshsaligheh, Ameri and Mehdizadkhani (2017). They focus their study on the strategies defined as maintaining, deleting, mitigating, substituting and amplifying. All in all, this study reveals how fansubbers give more importance to the source culture norms despite the fact that the Iranian society is reluctant to show taboo terms on the screen. Despite the fact that more research is expected to be conducted, the above studies on religion and AVT are worthy of mention as they are opening new research avenues beyond Occidental frontiers. 3. Research design This study is based on the DTS paradigm, which aims to observe the manner in which profane and blasphemous content is subtitled into Spanish for the audience in Spain. The corpus is composed of some of Tarantino’s films, from some of his earliest works to some of his more recent ones. The first three films are analysed in their DVD version, while the final one has been analysed in its Blu-ray ver- sion. In any case, all versions are meant for domestic use. With the aim of observing the transfer of profanity and blasphemy, this study resorts to techniques (Hurtado Albir 2011), understood as the result of a transla- tion, leaving translation strategies aside, given that the main focus is on the TT as a result. Accordingly, the observation relies on the fact that the profane and/or blasphemous load of the source text (ST) is transferred to the target text (TT) or if by contrast such load does not materialise. Table 1 indicates the techniques observed based on previous studies (Ávila-Cabrera 2017). Table 1. Taxonomy of techniques Techniques utilised Transfer Toned up Maintained Toned down Non-Transfer Neutralised Omitted As shown in the above table, it can be inferred that there are three categories for cases in which the profane and blasphemous load of the original is transferred to the TT. If the result in the TT is even stronger, it can be said to be toned up; when the result contains a load that is compensated or transmitted in similar terms, it is maintained; sometimes transfers tend to be softened, although there is an effort made by the professional translator to render it in an approximate man- 130 Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 José Javier Ávila-Cabrera ner, for which reason the result can be defined as toned down. However, it is when the load of the original is not visible in the TT that two things can occur: the result can be said to be neutralised with a rendering whose effect is different from the original and does not offend the audience; or it can be omitted when it is deleted in the subtitles. In order to establish the core of the study, two research questions have been established with the aim of exploring the data under analysis: (1) Are the profane and blasphemous phrases transferred in a faithful way or by contrast some of the techniques used tend to neutralise or omit their load? (2) Are there any cases of blasphemy encountered in the TT? The quantitative data will allow us to address the above research questions which can shed some light on the manner in which religious elements are treated, considering the sensitive nature of the language under analysis. In this particular case, this paper concerns the Spanish viewers who consume DVD and Blu-ray versions of Tarantino. It cannot be denied that subtitling, as an AVT mode, is subject to technical constraints which determine the number of characters used per subtitle on the basis of the reading speed and because of this, when the exchanges are peppered with a considerable number of offensive and/or taboo words, there is a tendency to condense and even delete linguistic elements which overload the screen (Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007). This study, based on four case studies, aims to reveal if audiovisual transla- tors tend to use religious elements in a special manner on the basis of the effect that written language can have on viewers. In addition, when the original abuses directly towards Jesus Christ or God, the Spanish viewer may feel uncomfortable with faithful renderings. To this aim the second research question is addressed. 4. The corpus and data analysis 4.1. The corpus This experiment takes a corpus composed of several case studies which corre- spond to Reservoir Dogs (1992) with 31 instances, Pulp Fiction (1994) with 29 instances, Inglourious Basterds (2009) with 7 instances and finally The Hateful Eight (2015) with 31 instances encountered (see Appendix). The first three films were analysed in their DVD version, while the latter corresponds to the Blu-ray version. 4.2. Data analysis This section shows some of the most significant examples which have been scru- tinised in this study. All tables include the ST and TT with the taboo terms in bold type, along with the taboo category (profanity or blasphemy), if the transfer Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 131 was made possible or not, and the technique (toned up, maintained, and toned down; neutralised and omitted) utilised. In the case of the TT, a back translation is included below to illustrate the linguistic changes and subtleties. Table 2. Sample 1 from Reservoir Dogs Example 1. Reservoir Dogs ST: Oh, Jesus Christ!  TT: ¡Hostia puta! [Fucking host/bloody hell!]. Taboo (profane) > transfer (toned up) In Western European English culture, using the name of God or Jesus in vain can be said to be offensive, regardless of one’s religious background. This is not necessarily the same in the language of the target culture. In the example above, the subtitler might have resorted to a formula to avoid the direct reference to Jesus Christ in the TT, but which combines a religious word with a swearword, that is, ¡Hostia puta! [Fucking host/bloody hell!]. The transfer has therefore materialised and the technique used can be said to have toned up the phrase, con- sidering that the ST mentions Jesus Christ in vain, but does not incorporate any other offensive word. Table 3. Sample 2 from Reservoir Dogs Example 2. Reservoir Dogs ST: Oh my God!  TT: ¡Dios mío! [My God!] Taboo (profane) > non-transfer (neutralised) The table above is a clear example of how cultures can differ when dealing with the same phrase. While mentioning God in the ST can be considered making use of a taboo term, in the Spanish TT the expression ¡Dios mío! [My God!] becomes neutralised. This can be explained as mentioning God in the terms above in the target culture when feeling despair, pain, and the like is not taboo. The transfer then has not been made in similar terms. Table 4. Sample 1 from Pulp Fiction Example 3. Pulp Fiction ST: Oh, Jesus fucking Christ! TT: ¡Me cago en la puta! [I shit on the whore!] Taboo (blasphemous) > transfer (toned down) The blasphemy Jesus fucking Christ is a recurrent expletive in some of Tar- antino’s screenplays and it could have a serious impact on the Spanish audience if subtitled faithfully. The TT has resorted to a toning down of the original phrase 132 Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 José Javier Ávila-Cabrera although some offensive terms are made visible in ¡Me cago en la puta! [I shit on the whore!] with the aim of fulfilling somehow the function that the phrase in the ST has. In any case, the transfer has been made via the toning down of the origi- nal phrase and it must be highlighted that no blasphemy formula is present in the TT. This could be therefore considered a case of ideological manipulation or self- censorship. Table 5. Sample 2 from Pulp Fiction Example 4. Pulp Fiction ST: Goddamn, that’s a pretty fucking good milkshake! TT: Es un batido bastante cojonudo. [It’s such a bitching milkshake!] Taboo (profane) > non-transfer (omitted) The ST contains the profane term Goddamn! The subtitler may, however, have decided to delete it given that load of the subtitle considering that fucking —as an offensive element— appears as well. Making use of the term cojonudo [bitching] can be said to combine the essence of the taboo and offensive term of the original, that is, Goddamn and fucking without the need of overloading the TT with more taboo/offensive terms. Accordingly, the decision to use the tech- nique of omission may have to do with the necessity of having to abide by the spatio-temporal limitations of subtitling. Table 6. Sample 1 from Inglourious Basterds Example 5. Inglourious Basterds ST: but I sure as hell didn’t come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains  TT: pero yo no bajo de las montañas [but I don’t come down from the mountains] Taboo (profane) > non-transfer (omitted) The adjective goddamn, which alludes to God’s damnation, is omitted in the TT. This is a case of non-transfer as the taboo term is not visible in the subtitle. It could be inferred that the number of characters included in the subtitle might jeopardise the comfortable reading of it, for which reason a solution may be omit- ting the taboo term, which is very frequently used by this character. Table 7. Sample 2 from Inglourious Basterds Example 6. Inglourious Basterds ST: Goddamn you! Get off! TT: ¡La madre que os parió! [The mother that gave birth to you] Taboo (profane) > transfer (maintained) Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 133 The expletive Goddamn you! has been subtitled by means of a reformulation which compensates and maintains the tone of the original ¡La madre que os parió! [The mother that gave birth to you]. Albeit the result in the TT may be considered a taboo expression, it does not refer to God directly. Table 8. Sample 1 from The Hateful Eight Example 7. The Hateful Eight ST: and my wrist is gonna stay cuffed to hers, and she ain’t never gonna leave my goddamn ride TT: Y voy a seguir pegado a ella y ella pegada a mí [And I’m going to continue stuck to her and she to me!] Taboo (profane) > non-transfer (omitted) Goddamn, as an adjective, has been directly omitted in the TT. Given the length of the dialogue exchange, the subtitler may have opted to delete this term in order to condense all the information of the original. This is a case of non- transfer because of the omission of this profane term. Table 9. Sample 2 from The Hateful Eight Example 8. The Hateful Eight ST: I’ll be a goddamn dog in the manger TT: ¡Que me lleven los demonios! [May the demons take me away] Taboo (profane) > transfer (maintained) The adjective goddamn preceding the noun dog has been reformulated in the TT as ¡Que me lleven los demonios! [May the demons take me away]. The subti- tler may have needed to avoid the religious reference in favour of providing the TT with an idiomatic reformulation. Thus, the transfer can be said to have materi- alised without a direct reference to God; instead there has been an antagonistic reference to demons. As shown in all the examples above, no blasphemy cases have been encoun- tered. This information is crucial in order to address the second research ques- tion. In the next section, further information is provided in this regard. 5. Results and discussion The results shown in this section are primarily presented as different case studies. First, information on the quantitative results in an attempt to address the first research question is presented. Second, the cases of profanity vs. blasphemy are further discussed. 134 Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 José Javier Ávila-Cabrera 5.1. Reservoir Dogs The results which indicate the techniques utilised by the subtitler along with the instances found and analysed are included in Table 10. Table 10. Results from Reservoir Dogs Reservoir Dogs Instances Percentage Toned up 2 6% Maintained 5 16% Toned down 4 13% Transferred – Total 11 35% Neutralised 2 6% Omitted 18 58% Non-transferred – Total 20 65% Grand total 31 100% The data provided above clearly presents that more than half of the cases including religious elements have not been transferred to the TT, and these account for 65%. As only in 35% of the cases the transfer has been possible, in the majority of cases the tendency is not to subtitle religious terms in the Spanish European subtitles of this film. 5.2. Pulp Fiction The data obtained in this case study shows a similar tendency as the previous one, considering that in 73% of the cases the religious elements transfer has not materialised. Table 11. Results from Pulp Fiction Pulp Fiction Instances Percentage Toned up 0 0% Maintained 3 10% Toned down 5 17% Transferred – Total 8 27% Neutralised 4 14% Omitted 17 59% Non-transferred – Total 21 73% Grand total 29 100% As the above table shows, there is consequently a lower percentage of the cases in which some type of transfer was done on the basis of maintained and toned down terms/expressions. Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 135 5.3. Inglourious Basterds The quantitative data of this film shows a slight tendency to transfer some more religious referents in opposition to the previous case studies, as shown in Table 12. Table 12. Results from Inglourious Basterds Inglourious Basterds Instances Percentage Toned up 0 0% Maintained 1 14% Toned down 2 29% Transferred – Total 3 43% Neutralised 1 14% Omitted 3 43% Non-transferred – Total 4 57% Grand total 7 100% Although in more than half of the cases (57%), the religious referents have not been transferred to the TT, 43% of the samples have. Although the difference is not considerably significant, the reduced number of cases encountered, only seven, must be highlighted. For this reason, this case study has presented very few examples of religious references in the original dialogue. 5.4. The Hateful Eight The results obtained in this case study are also more or less balanced. In 52% of the cases the transfer has been completed as shown by Table 13. Table 13. Results from The Hateful Eight The Hateful Eight Instances Percentage Toned up 0 0% Maintained 14 45% Toned down 1 3% Transferred – Total 15 48% Neutralised 6 19% Omitted 10 33% Non-transferred – Total 16 52% Grand total 31 100% The information provided in Table 13 presents another case study in which there is a tendency to not fully transfer religious terms. These examples have been mainly treated via neutralisation and omission. Based on all the quantitative data provided by the previous sections, there is a common tendency to not transfer religious elements in the form of profanity and 136 Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 José Javier Ávila-Cabrera blasphemy to the European Spanish subtitles. The first research question is then addressed by highlighting this tendency, which has been a common feature in the analysis of the four case studies. The ensuing section is devoted to further explo- ration of the treatment of profanity and blasphemy. 5.5. Profanity vs. blasphemy The second research question is based on evaluating whether any blasphemy were found in the subtitles. In order to address this question, Figure 1 includes the results on the basis of the four cases studies. Figure 1. Profanity vs. blasphemy in the corpus 13% 10% 0% 6% 0% 0% 0% 0%0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Reservoir Dogs Pulp Fiction Inglourious Basterds The Hateful Eight Profanity Blasphemy Based on the data shown above, there are outstanding results which provide some insight into the study conducted. First, if all the cases of profanity are con- sidered as a whole, it can be argued that there are very few cases present in the TT (29 cases out of the 98 analysed, including both profanity and blasphemy) which were transferred through the use of religious elements. This indicates a tendency which reinforces the results obtained quantitatively, that is, profanity tends not to be transferred in the subtitles in favour of using some other formulas where the use of God, Jesus or Jesus Christ is not the norm or is not expressed as taboo. In addition, the importance of technical constraints must be acknowledged as subtitlers have to condense the ST in order to include the essential elements in the subtitles. In many cases taboo elements, particularly in the form of religious referents, are likely to be omitted. Second, it is important to note that in none of the case studies analysed, were direct religious figures vilified, that is, no instances of blasphemy were encoun- tered in the European Spanish subtitles. This fact can therefore support the argu- ment that subtitlers tend to self-censor when having to deal with blasphemy in a faithful way. Other techniques, nonetheless, are used to transfer these terms but avoid a direct insult to religious figures, as shown in some of the examples ana- Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 137 lysed in this paper. Accordingly, the second research question is answered by the fact that no blasphemy was visible in the subtitles probably with the aim of avoid- ing negative reactions by viewers. 6. Conclusions The objective of this paper was to look into the treatment of profanity and blas- phemy in four case studies from a selection of Tarantino’s films which were sub- titled into European Spanish. The main goals were to address two research questions via a quantitative analysis of the samples under study and utilising the DTS approach. Firstly, it cannot be said that profane and blasphemous phrases are fully transferred faithfully in the subtitles given the quantitative results obtained. In Reservoir Dogs 65% of the cases were not transferred, in Pulp Fic- tion 73%, while in Inglourious Basterds and The Hateful Eight the results were more balanced as 57% and 52% of the cases respectively were not transferred. It is in the second question when it can be observed that no cases of blasphemy were encountered in the subtitles. What is more, when analysing the aforemen- tioned quantitative data, it was revealed that the examples involving both profan- ity and blasphemy were transferred in the form of profanity as follows: in only 13% of the cases in Reservoir Dogs, 10% in Pulp Fiction, there were no cases in Inglourious Basterds, and only in 6% in The Hateful Eight. The analysis conducted in these four case studies reveal that the manner of subtitling the aforementioned films, regardless of the significant span of time, completely avoids the use of direct expressions vilifying religious figures. This can be explained by the need to avoid a negative impact on the viewers of the target culture. Accordingly, it can be inferred from this study that self-censorship or ideological manipulation has an outstanding presence when dealing with terms such as God, Jesus Christ and the like. On the one hand, referring to God in the target culture and language —and in the terms observed in the samples— neutral- ises its effect as it can be used as a way of asking for divine intervention or help. In addition, the importance of not including blasphemy in the TT supports the idea of avoiding these direct religious offenses. Last but not least, in subtitling, word-for-word translation is not expected and this is the reason why reformula- tions which differ from the ST often take place. Regarding religious references, it has been proved that the tendency is to make use of idiomatic renderings along with other (non-)offensive phrases or expressions, and to abide by technical con- strains in favour of linguistic condensation. In summary, this study has provided a small glimpse into the manner in which profanity and blasphemy are subtitled into European Spanish. This corpus, while not conclusive, makes a small contribution to the literature of taboo lan- guage, specifically in the field of religion and AVT. Further studies on larger corpora would provide researchers with more conclusive results on this less explored field of research. 138 Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 José Javier Ávila-Cabrera Bibliographical references Allan, K.; Burridg, K. (2006). Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Lan- guage. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ávila-Cabrera, J.J. (2015a). “An account of the subtitling of offensive and taboo lan- guage in Tarantino’s screenplays”. Sendebar, 26, p. 37-56. — (2015b). “Subtitling Tarantino’s offensive and taboo dialogue exchanges into European Spanish: the case of Pulp Fiction”. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas, 10, p. 1-11. — (2016a). “The subtitling of offensive and taboo language into Spanish of Inglourious Basterds: A case study”. Babel, 62 (2), p. 211-232. — (2016b). “The treatment of offensive and taboo language in the subtitling of Reservoir Dogs into Spanish”. TRANS, 20, p. 25-40. — (2017). “La subtitulación del lenguaje ofensivo y tabú. Estudio descriptivo”. In: Mar- tínez Sierra, J.J. (ed.). Fotografía de la investigación doctoral en traducción audio- visual. Volumen 2. Madrid: Bohodón Ediciones, p. 13-31. Cambridge Dictionary. Online. Díaz Cintas, J. (2001). “Sex, (sub)titles and videotapes”. In: Lorenzo García, L.; Pereira Rodríguez, A.M. (eds.). Traducción subordinada II: el subtitulado (inglés – español/galego). Vigo: Universidad de Vigo, p. 47-67. — (2012). “Clearing the smoke to see the screen: ideological manipulation in audiovisual translation”. Meta, 57 (2), p. 279-293. Díaz Cintas, J.; Remael, A. (2007). Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester: St Jerome. ElShiekh, A.A.A. (2016). “Problems in English to Arabic subtitles translation of reli- gious terms—Bruce Almighty and Supernatural on MBC & Dubai One: A case study”. International Journal of English Linguistics, 6 (1), p. 38. Hughes, G. (2006). An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profani- ty, Foul language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World. New York and London: M.E. Sharpe. Jay, T.B. (1980). “Sex roles and dirty word usage: a review of the literature and a reply to Haas”. Psychological Bulletin, 88 (3), p. 614-621. Khoshsaligheh, M; Ameri, S.; Mehdizzadkhani, M. (2017). “A socio-cultural study of taboo rendition in Persian fansubbing: an issue of resistance, language and intercultur- al communication”. Language and Intercultural Communication, p. 1-18. Lung, R. (1998). “On mis-translating sexually suggestive elements in English-Chinese screen subtitling”. Babel, 44 (2), p. 97-109. Martínez Sierra, J.J. (2015). “La traducción de Nigger en Django Desencadenado: Un enfoque ideológico”. In: Chaume, F.; Richart Marset, M. (eds.). Traducción, ide- http://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/sendebar/article/view/2501 http://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/sendebar/article/view/2501 http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/rlyla.2015.3419 https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.62.2.03avi http://www.trans.uma.es/Trans_20/Trans_20_A2.pdf http://www.trans.uma.es/Trans_20/Trans_20_A2.pdf https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles-espanol/profanity https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles-espanol/profanity https://doi.org/10.7202/1013945ar https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v6n1p38 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.88.3.614 https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2017.1377211 https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.44.2.02lun Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 139 ología y poder en la ficción audiovisual. Prosopopeya. Revista de crítica contem- poránea, 9, p. 81-98. Mattsson, J. (2006). “Linguistic variation in subtitling: The subtitling of swearwords and discourse markers on public television, commercial television and DVD”. In: Car- roll, M.; Gerzymisch-Arbogast, H.; Nauert, S. (eds.). MuTra 2006–Audiovisual Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings. Copenhagen, p. 47-56. McEnery, T. (2006). Swearing in English. Bad Language, Purity and Power from 1586 to the Present. London and New York: Routledge. New Oxford Dictionary of English (2001). New York: Oxford University Press. Soler Pardo, B. (2015). On the Translation of Swearing Into Spanish: Quentin Taranti- no from Reservoir Dogs to Inglourious Basterds. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Toury, G. (2012). Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam and Philadel- phia: John Benjamins. Wajnryb, R. (2005). Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language. New York: Free Press. Filmography Reservoir Dogs (1992). Quentin Tarantino. Live Entertainment and Dog Eat Dog Produc- tions Inc. USA. Pulp Fiction (1994). Quentin Tarantino. A Band Apart, Jersey Films, and Miramax Films. USA. Inglourious Basterds (2009). Quentin Tarantino. Universal Pictures, The Weinstein Com- pany, A Band Apart, Zehnte Babelsberg, and Visiona Romantica. USA and Germany. The Hateful Eight (2015). Quentin Tarantino. Visiona Romantica, Double Feature Films, and FilmColony. USA. Appendix The examples below correspond to the ST of the corpus analysed. The religious terms can be seen in bold type. Reservoir Dogs Pulp Fiction Inglourious Basterds The Hateful Eight Jesus Christ, these ladies aren’t starving to death Oh, Jesus fucking Christ Goddamn Nazi farts, sons of bitches! I said above your hat, Goddamn it All you can do is pray for a quick death... Ah, God! Oh, Jesus Christ! Goddamn you! Get off! up to this goddamn mountain Fuck jail, man!... I swear to fucking God, man. Oh, God... Yes, I’ve fucking looked I sure as hell didn’t come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains You are the onehanded her my goddamn letter Jesus Christ! He’s dead. Oh my God! that orchard would be a goddamn sniper’s delight. You aren’t no goddamn lady 140 Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 José Javier Ávila-Cabrera Reservoir Dogs Pulp Fiction Inglourious Basterds The Hateful Eight Oh God! Jesus Christ. I’m gonna ask you one last goddamn time I’ll be a goddamn dog in the manger I don’t wanna know it. Jesus Christ, I ain’t gonna tell you mine. I said goddamn! Goddamn! Goddamn! You didn’t say the goddamn rendezvous was in a fucking basement Not a goddamn thing to nobody Jesus Christ! What the fuck is your problem, man? Goddam! you’d wear that goddamn uniform for the rest of your pecker- sucking life. You’re going to realize every goddamn thing Jesus! Come on. Do it, goddamn it! Jesus! I mean, Jesus Christ, how old do you think that black girl was? Twenty? I don’t remember asking you a goddamned thing! Jesus Christ, that’s aweful! I swear to God, I think I’m fucking jinxed. Say “what” one more goddamn time! Christ almighty Jesus Christ, I was worried about mug shot possibilities as it was Get your asses on in here. Goddamn, nigger? You’re doing stable work in a goddamn blizaard Jesus Christ. Not a goddamn thing Goddamn it! Jesus Christ, give me a fucking chance to breathe. Goddamn, that’s a pretty fucking good milkshake! Jesus Christ! That door is a whore Jesus Christ! The goddamn phone’s ringing! You lift your ass even one inch off this seat, I’ll put a bullet right in your goddamn throat Jesus Christ, Joe. Fucking forget about it. It’s 1:30 in the goddamn morning You Goddamn son of a bitch Jesus! I’m fucking blind. We’ll find out for goddamn sure Warren, Goddamn it, you leave that old man alone! Holy shit, Orange is dead. You’re right. You’re goddamn right. Goddamn it! Profanity and blasphemy in the subtitling of English Quaderns. Rev. Trad. 27, 2020 141 Reservoir Dogs Pulp Fiction Inglourious Basterds The Hateful Eight Goddam you, Joe Now you just wait a goddamn minute, now! You’re a goddamn lie goddam breakfast Hold it right there, goddamn it. down this goddamn throat just cough in your goddam buck Did you forget that someone was in there with a goddamn hand cannon? Oh my God! Say the goddamn words Goddamn it. Goddamn it! Say the goddamn fucking words the towel didn’t look like no goddamn maxi- pad! Like me, Goddamn it We’re awful goddamn lucky Goddamn, Jimmie! I’m pretty Goddamn sure that chair’s going with him he’ll tell you he started the goddamn Chicago Fire! Goddamn, this morning air is some chilly shit. and put it in the hands of a Goddamned Mexican After waiting three goddamn days This ain’t none of your goddamn business! down the bitches’ goddamn throat This ain’t a goddamn fucking city council meeting Goddamn it, what is it? the goddamned game All you guys got the goddamn message? don’t do a goddamn thing Ah Jesus! Fuck! It’s so goddamn mad hollering at you guys He ain’t gonna do a goddamn, motherfucking thing! Goddamn right! Unless the goddamn ass is nailed to the floor