Audio describing emotions from a semiotic perspective: Mucize Doktor

Year 2023, Issue: 33, 1376 - 1388, 26.04.2023

Pelin Şulha

https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1283494

Abstract

This article aims to study the audio description of emotions from a semiotic standpoint. Selected scenes from the first episode of Mucize Doktor will be analyzed. This process involves intralingual and intersemiotic translation. Audio Description includes the description of the visual aspects of any audiovisual media for the accession of the blind and partially sighted receivers. To make films and TV series accessible an additional audible narrative is weaved between dialogues to provide information necessary for understanding what has been conveyed through these forms of art. Films or TV series consist of visual signified which refers to moving and still images and written texts and acoustic signified such as dialogues, sounds and music. Audio described versions of these audiovisual products contain only the acoustic content of the original narrative and the voice of the dubbing actor who speaks the images described through intersemiotic operation. In other words, when describing filmic images or what Peirce calls icons, a problematic conversion takes place which turns images into words or icons into symbols and thus the decision making about whether to remain neutral or interpret what is seen becomes blurred. Audio describer/translator’s choice of deductive or inductive approach determines for instance the way emotions are conveyed to the audience, i.e. is it possible to make an inference or is the character’s feeling already known? (Arma, 2011). Mucize Doktor (2019-2021) is a Turkish adaptation of the Korean series The Good Doctor and it tells the drama of a young and talented doctor Ali Vefa suffering from autistic savant syndrome. This study, focusing on his behaviors and other people’s responses, discusses the audio description of emotions in an attempt to guide the blind viewers through the narrative.

Keywords

Audiovisual Translation, Audio Description, Semiotics, TV Series, Mucize Doktor

References

• American Council of the Blind (2009). Audio Description Standards: July 2009-A Work in Progress. http://www.acb.org/adp/docs/ADP_Standards.doc
• Arma, S. (2011). The Language of Filmic Audio Description: a Corpus-Based Analysis of Adjectives. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Naples Federico II.
• Atkin, A. (2022). Peirce’s Theory of Signs. In E. N. Zalta & U. Nodelman (Eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022 Edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/peirce-semiotics/
• Braun, S. (2008). Audiodescription research: state of the art and beyond. Translation Studies in the New Millennium 6, 14-30.
• Bulut, P. (Writer), Koralp, O. (Writer) & Pirhasan, Y. (Director). (2019, September 12). [Season 1, Episode 1]. In A. Bülbüloğlu (Producer), Mucize Doktor, MF Productions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W31lc7qd_d8
• Cintas, J. D. & Orero, P. & Remael, A. (2007). Media for all: a glo¬bal challenge. In J. D. Cintas & P. Orero & A. Remael (Eds.), Media for All: Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description, and Sign Language (pp. 11-20). Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.
• Dönmez, İ. H. & Erdemir Göze, F. (2020). Hastane Temalı Dizilerde Kişilerarası İletişimin Sorunsallaştırılması: Hekimoğlu ve Mucize Doktor Örneği. Gümüşhane Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Elektronik Dergisi (e-gifder) 8 (2), 829-862. DOI: 10.19145/e-gifder.728044
• Durukan, İ. & Türkbay, T. (2010). Savant Sendromu: Klinik ve Nöropsikolojik Özellikleri. Psikiyatride Güncel Yaklaşımlar 2 (2), 237-253.
• Fox TV’yi Mucize Doktor ve Kadın dizilerindeki aşk zıplatacak! (2020, January 8). https://televizyongazetesi.com/v2/fox-tvyi-mucize-doktor-ve-kadin-dizilerindeki-ask-ziplatacak/1194182
• Gambier, Y. (2006). Multimodality and Audiovisual Translation. MuTra 2006 – Audiovisual Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings. http://euroconferences.info/proceedings/2006_Proceedings/2006_Gambier_Yves.pdf
• Greco, G. M. (2016). On Accessibility as a Human Right, with an Application to Media Accessibility. In A. Matamala & P. Orero (Eds.), Researching Audio Description: New Approaches (pp. 11-33). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Jakobson, R. (1959). On Linguistic Aspects of Translation. R. A. Brower (Ed.) On Translation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 232-239. https://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/PDF/jakobson.pdf
• Mazur, I. (2015). Gestures and facial expressions in audio description. In A. Maszerowska & A. Matamala & P. Orero (Eds.), Audio Description: New perspectives illustrated (pp. 179-197). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• Mucize Doktor’un Adil Hocası’ndan çağrı: “Ulusal Otizm Eylem Planı Hayata Geçsin!” (2020, December 3). https://tohumotizm.org.tr/mucize-doktorun-adil-hocasindan-cagri-ulusal-otizm-eylem-plani-hayata-gecsin/
• Ramos, M. (2015). The emotional experience of films: does Audio Description make a difference? The Translator 21(1), 68-94. DOI: 10.1080/13556509.2014.994853
• Shin, S.J. (2002). The Iconic Logic of Peirce’s Graphs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• United Nations. (2016). 10th anniversary of the adoption of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/
• Yener, İ. & Geçer, E. (2021). Televizyon Dizileri, Toplumsal Farkındalık Ve Otizm: “Mucize Doktor” Dizisi Örneği. Akademik İncelemeler Dergisi 16 (1), 146-162. DOI: 10.17550/akademikincelemeler.766630