The taboo revolution on streaming platforms in Slovakia: Euphoria keeps changing the game

Abstract

The explicit use of taboo language in the Slovak dubbing of audiovisual products available on streaming platforms has recently started to not only gain the attention of Slovak viewers, but also to spark interest among translation scholars. This paper is aimed at identifying the main strategies used in transferring taboo language in 8 episodes of Season 2 of Euphoria into the Slovak dubbed version in order to assess taboo language transfer. The analysis of taboo language is based on Popovič’s (1983) model of shifts at the expressive level of the work, which has been adapted for the transfer of taboo language, i.e. strategies of adequate transfer, compensation, amplification, attenuation, omission, and addition. In this paper, taboo language is understood primarily in line with Jay’s (2009) definition of taboos, Ávila-Cabrera’s (2013) taxonomy and Alsharhan’s (2020) concept map of taboo language. The secondary goal of the paper is to investigate the consistency of transfer strategies applied in Euphoria, Season 2, with those used in Season 1 which we researched previously (Ukušová & Koscelníková, forthcoming). The results of the analysis are further contextualised by adding information about the reception of Euphoria by Slovak viewers and an interview with the Slovak producer and director of the series from Sunrise Studio, who supervised the whole process of creating the dubbed audiovisual product. This will ensure that the analysis will not be suspended in a ‘vacuum’ by also considering external factors which may have shaped the overall translation conception and the use of specific translation strategies.