Lost in Domestication: Arabic Subtitling Norms and the Suppression of Feminist Critique in Casino (1995)

Abstract

This study examines how the Arabic subtitle track of Martin Scorsese's 1995 film 'Casino' (henceforth, Casino) reconstructs gendered discourse of the film. The film dialogue, which deploys misogynistic epithets, sexualized commands, and hypermasculine threats as a vehicle of social critique rather than as gratuitous embellishment, poses an acute ideological problem for translators working within Arabic sociolinguistic norms. Drawing upon an integrated analytical framework that combines Pedersen's (2011) taxonomy of extralinguistic cultural references, Fairclough's (1992, 2001) critical discourse studies, and feminist translation theory (von Flotow, 1997; Castro, 2013), the analysis reveals a domesticating process whereby choices that conform to Arabic sociolinguistic norms simultaneously diminish the source film's capacity to critique the patriarchal structures it depicts. The paper also found that women mentions are more often omitted than translated. When they are translated, they are more often substituted than retained. The analysis also suggests that the translation practice is selective rather than uniform.