School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies

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Pierre-Alexis Mével

Associate Professor in Translation Studies, Faculty of Arts

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Biography

I am Associate Professor in Translation Studies.at the University of Nottingham. I am also course director of the MA in Translation Studies.

Expertise Summary

  • Translation theory
  • Audiovisual translation
  • Subtitling (interlingual and DoH)
  • Dubbing
  • Audio description
  • Transfiction
  • Machine translation

Teaching Summary

MLAC3157 Subtitling and Dubbing from French into English

MLAC4027 Audiovisual Translation: Accessibility

MLAC1079 Introduction to French and Francophone Studies (Phonetics)

MLAC3061 Translation from French

MLAC3114 Translation into French for native speakers of French

MLAC3151 Introduction to Interpreting

Research Summary

I am currently working on a group of articles on the translation of French banlieue literature and banlieue cinema. I am particularly in the representation of orality in writing or on the screen, and… read more

Recent Publications

  • FRANCESCA LEVERIDGE, PIERRE-ALEXIS MÉVEL and MYRON TSIKANDILAKIS, 2024. Emotional Responses to Aesthetically Integrated and Standard Subtitling in a Fantasy-Thriller Audio-Visual Context Journal of Audiovisual Translation. 7(1), 1-32
  • PIERRE-ALEXIS MÉVEL, 2024. The Illusion of Symmetry: Subtitling African America into French. In: IRENE RANZATO and PATRICK ZABALBEASCOA, eds., Palgrave Handbook of Multilingualism and Language Varieties on Screen Palgrave. (In Press.)
  • PIERRE-ALEXIS MEVEL, PAUL TENNENT and JO ROBINSON, 2023. Innovation vs Practicality vs Entertainment inTRAlinea: Online Translation Journal.
  • FRANCESCA LEVERIDGE and PIERRE-ALEXIS MÉVEL, 2023. Cinéma-Monde and subtitling Journal of Romance Studies. 23(1), 27-47

Current Research

I am currently working on a group of articles on the translation of French banlieue literature and banlieue cinema. I am particularly in the representation of orality in writing or on the screen, and in the ideological ramifications of translating non-standard discourse into another language.

I am also currently co-investigator on an AHRC-funded project for the Next Generation of Immersive Experiences, entitled Integrated Immersive Inclusive Theatre, which explores the potential of new and easily accessible immersive technologies to assist in the creation of inclusive and integrated communication within theatrical performance.

Past Research

At the intersection of Translation Studies, Sociolinguistics and Film Studies, my doctoral thesis analysed how textual and audiovisual objects move across borders, and the nature of the shift characters' identity undergoes in the process of translation. I examine the translation into French, in the form of subtitles, of a corpus of American films portraying speakers of a marked use of language (African American Vernacular English, henceforth AAVE) that informs character development, and convey powerful social and political traits that are particularly meaningful in the source culture. This raises particular issues relating to the formation of identities, about their cultural porosity, and the transferability of culturally bound features and the nature of their adaptation in another culture. In the process, I am redefining the figure of the translator, who is constantly negotiating with cultures, for instance by associating features of banlieue French (such as verlan) in their subtitles with images of Black America. Although sociolinguistic studies have shown how black youths use specific linguistic characteristics to construct their social identity, the audiovisual translation of vernacular language and the possibilities for language to convey otherness remain under-studied. In this thesis, I show the ways in which these traits are altered (in the etymological sense, "made other/different/foreign") in the process of translation. This case study on the subtitling of AAVE into French, particularly in the context of audiovisual translation which is just coming to the fore of Translation Studies, contributes to broader debates on the translation of sociolinguistic features and suggests ways in which existing subtitling frameworks might be broadened to include cultural and sociolinguistic dimensions, rather than limiting themselves to technical and linguistic considerations.

Future Research

Whilst I have already published and lectured on Transfiction, I would like to delve into this particular topic further, and examine the ways in which translators/interpreters and acts of translation/interpreting are portrayed in contemporary popular fiction.

School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies

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