Retranslating 'Community' for an Italian Gen Z audience: a subtitling proposal for the first season of the sitcom

Abstract

This research aims to offer a translation proposal for the first season of the American sitcom Community targeted to a Gen Z audience, using the existing Italian subtitles available on the Netflix streaming platform as a reference. The reason that led me to choose this TV series was the abundance of intertextual references and translation problems in its script. This show was originally produced between 2009 and 2014 and it was added to the Italian Netflix catalogue only in April 2020, making it available to a new audience. Therefore, I decided to research how the subtitles could be adapted to better suit the younger users of this platform. The retranslation focuses primarily on the catchphrases and special features of the protagonists’ ways of speaking, on the titles and the references to other films and TV series, on culture-specific elements, on mentions of pop culture personalities or events and, when necessary, on the removal of racist and sexist speech, which cannot be tolerated by the younger generations. Subsequently, the translation choices were divided into categories based on their characteristics and they were justified through an analysis of the original references, the solutions adopted in the retranslation and how they can be better enjoyed by the new target audience.