Language and translation in classic westerns: revisiting stereotypes in They Died with Their Boots On and Fort Apache

ABSTRACT

Drawing on Michael Cronin’s analysis of Stagecoach, and on narrative theory and image studies, this paper aims to examine the role of language and translation in two classical Hollywood westerns, namely They Died with Their Boots On and Fort Apache. It will consider whether these films provide only negative representations of Native Americans and whether the linguistic and paralinguistic elements present in the films undermine those narratives. It will also compare the English originals and the Spanish dubbed movies in order to probe whether the narratives presented in the original films are maintained in the target versions. For this purpose, I will study the various textual layers present in the films, including the use of Injun English, the discourse of Anglo and Native Americans, the use of Spanish, and the translation of all these into Spanish. The study shows that the original films question old stereotypes of Native Americans, while the Spanish versions rely on more conventional narratives.

A partir del estudio de Michael Cronin de La diligencia, así como de la teoría de las narrativas y de los estudios imagológicos, este artículo analizará la función del lenguaje y de la traducción en dos westerns clásicos, Murieron con las botas puestas y Fort Apache. El análisis pretende descifrar si estas películas ofrecen representaciones exclusivamente negativas de los nativos americanos y si los elementos lingüísticos y paralingüisticos que encontramos en las mismas las socavan de alguna manera. Se compararán las versiones originales y dobladas al español con el objetivo de comprobar si las narrativas presentes en las primeras se mantienen en las segundas. Con este fin, se estudiarán los diferentes niveles textuales, tales como el uso del denominado inglés Injun, el discurso de los personajes de habla inglesa y de los nativos americanos, el uso del español y, finalmente, la traducción de todos ellos en las versiones dobladas. El estudio demuestra las versiones españolas siguen más de cerca los estereotipos tradicionales que se aplican a los indios que las versiones en inglés, más proclives a cuestionarlos.

KEYWORDS:

• Translation
• westerns
• narratives
• multilingualism
• stereotypes
• Native Americans

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Roberto A. Valdeón is Full Professor in English Studies at the University of Oviedo, Spain, and a member of the Academia Europaea. He is the author of over a hundred publications, including contributions to journals such as Across Languages and Cultures, Meta, Intercultural Pragmatics, Terminology, The Translator, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Target, Babel, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Philological Quarterly, Journalism and Translating and Interpreting Studies. He has guest-edited special issues of Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Perspectives, Meta, European Journal of Translation Studies, Across Languages and Cultures and Language and Intercultural Communication, and is currently guest-editing a special issue of Target. He is Editor-in-Chief of Perspectives Studies in Translation Theory and Practice and General Editor of the Benjamins Translation Library. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Visiting Professor at the University of Leuven, and is a Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa (2014–2020), and an Honorary Professor at Jinan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Nankai University and Beijing International Studies University in China, and at the University of Stirling in the UK.

ORCID

Roberto A. Valdeón http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1948-0473

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [grant number FFI2015-66516-P].