Degrees of indetermination in intersemiotic translation
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Nicola Dusi
Abstract
Discussing the problem of ‘intersemiotic translation’ from literature to film Eco (2003) maintains that an adaptation inevitably explicates the unsaid, showing and therefore establishing a point of view precisely where the novel is vaguest. In my opinion a movie can create variable degrees of ‘indetermination’. Its peculiar status as a syncretic semiotic system gives the cinematic text plenty of scope for narrative, ‘figurative’ (i.e. iconic) and discursive implications (Greimas 1984). The audiovisual image may be deliberately open to interpretations and free to not-show and not-say and can create potential elements of indetermination that enable the target text to translate the ambiguities and the semantic open-endedness of the source text. To illustrate these issues of indetermination I will use Smoke by Wayne Wang (USA 1995).
Abstract
Discussing the problem of ‘intersemiotic translation’ from literature to film Eco (2003) maintains that an adaptation inevitably explicates the unsaid, showing and therefore establishing a point of view precisely where the novel is vaguest. In my opinion a movie can create variable degrees of ‘indetermination’. Its peculiar status as a syncretic semiotic system gives the cinematic text plenty of scope for narrative, ‘figurative’ (i.e. iconic) and discursive implications (Greimas 1984). The audiovisual image may be deliberately open to interpretations and free to not-show and not-say and can create potential elements of indetermination that enable the target text to translate the ambiguities and the semantic open-endedness of the source text. To illustrate these issues of indetermination I will use Smoke by Wayne Wang (USA 1995).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Iconicity and conceptualization
- Iconicity by blending 13
- The Bashō code 25
- Iconicity in gotoochi-kitii ‘localized Hello Kitty’ 43
- Grammar-internal mimicking and analogy 63
- To draw a bow 引 83
- Spatiotemporal aspects of iconicity 95
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Part II. Visual iconicity
- From diagrams to poetry 121
- The iconized letter 141
- The semantics of structure 159
- Visual iconicity in Latin poetry 173
- Shared and direct experiential iconicity in digital reading games 191
- Iconicity, intermediality, and interpersonal meanings in a Social Semiotic Space 211
- Model and icon 233
- Degrees of indetermination in intersemiotic translation 247
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Part III. Auditory iconicity
- Sound, image and fake realism 263
- Opera, oratorio, and iconic strategies 275
- On some iconic strategies in concept albums within the Italian singer-songwriter tradition 295
- Iconically expressible meanings in Proto-Indo-European roots and their reflexes in daughter branches 311
- The lexical iconicity hierarchy and its grammatical correlates 331
- Author index 351
- Subject index 355
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Iconicity and conceptualization
- Iconicity by blending 13
- The Bashō code 25
- Iconicity in gotoochi-kitii ‘localized Hello Kitty’ 43
- Grammar-internal mimicking and analogy 63
- To draw a bow 引 83
- Spatiotemporal aspects of iconicity 95
-
Part II. Visual iconicity
- From diagrams to poetry 121
- The iconized letter 141
- The semantics of structure 159
- Visual iconicity in Latin poetry 173
- Shared and direct experiential iconicity in digital reading games 191
- Iconicity, intermediality, and interpersonal meanings in a Social Semiotic Space 211
- Model and icon 233
- Degrees of indetermination in intersemiotic translation 247
-
Part III. Auditory iconicity
- Sound, image and fake realism 263
- Opera, oratorio, and iconic strategies 275
- On some iconic strategies in concept albums within the Italian singer-songwriter tradition 295
- Iconically expressible meanings in Proto-Indo-European roots and their reflexes in daughter branches 311
- The lexical iconicity hierarchy and its grammatical correlates 331
- Author index 351
- Subject index 355
