Inter-semiotic Analysis of Cinematic Adaptation of Forrest Gump and its Persian Dubbing

Abstract

Inter-semiotic translation, including film adaptation, is one of the most critical areas that reveal the relations between Translation Studies and other disciplines. Since the adapted film is prepared for a different media, changes and manipulations are inevitable. In addition, these changes become more critical if the adaptation is provided or dubbed for a different society and audiences with a different culture. The purpose of this study was to investigate the strategies used for inter-semiotic translation in the cinematic adaptation of Forrest Gump (1994) and its Persian dubbed version, adapted from a novel of the same title (1986) by Winston Groom. To meet this purpose, the English and the dubbed version of the film as the target texts were compared with the novel as the original and the changes were classified and analyzed inter-semiotically based on Manipulation strategies (deletion, substitution, addition, and attenuation) suggested by Dukate (2007) and Eder’s (2010) model of character. The results indicated that all manipulation strategies had been used in the film, but the most frequently used strategy in the movie was deletion. In addition, cultural subjects (including moral issues) were among the most manipulated subjects. Furthermore, the most significant change was related to the symbolic characterization of the main character