Exploring the Translation Strategies of Taboos in Subtitled English Crime Movies into Persian: An In-depth Analysis

The translation of taboo words presents a significant challenge for translators in the audiovisual industry. The appropriate handling of the translation of taboo words is imperative, as their usage has the potential to transgress the cultural norms of the recipient society. In this context, translators employ diverse strategies to identify corresponding expressions in the target language. This study tried to identify the various types of taboo words based on Hughes’ (1998) model in four crime movies namely Training Day (2001), 21 Jump Street (2012), Alpha Dog (2007), and Straight Outta Compton (2015). Furthermore, this study aimed to explore the strategies used by Iranian translators in subtitling the taboo words in the selected mentioned movies based on Davoodi’s (2009) model. Descriptive statistics were used to determine frequencies and percentages of the found taboo words and applied strategies in the Persian subtitled of the taboo words. Based on Hughes’ (1998) model, five different categories of taboo words including anatomy terms, excretion terms, general terms, genitalia terms, and religious terms were identified in the selected under-study movies, which were found in 1128 cases. The general terms were the most type used in the taboo word category followed by the excretion terms as the second type used in the taboo word category. Besides, based on Davoodi’s (2009) model, the findings showed that "Censorship", and "Substitution" were the first and second used strategies by Iranian translators for subtitling the taboo words, respectively. The findings of the Chi-square test revealed significant differences between translators’ strategies in four subtitling studios in Iran. These findings offer insights for subtitlers and translation students working on subtitling taboo words from English to Persian in crime movies.