TRANSLATION STRATEGY OF CULTURAL TERMS IN THE SUBJECT OF THE FILM "KUCUMBU TUBUH INDAHKU" AS A FORM OF RESISTANCE AND NEGOTIATION
Main Article Content
Miftah Farhantia Zamroni
Tatang Hariri
This study examines the translation strategies of cultural terms in the subtitles of a film entitled “Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku” (Memories of My Body) by Garin Nugroho, focusing on their role as acts of cultural resistance and negotiation. The research aims to (1) identify and describe the strategies used to translate culture-specific terms, (2) analyze how these strategies reflect tendencies toward foreignization (resistance) and domestication (negotiation), and (3) interpret their contribution to the construction of character identity and the representation of Javanese culture to international audiences. This research employs a descriptive qualitative method with a comparative approach. The primary data consists of two subtitle transcripts of the same movie, analyzed using Newmark's (1988) procedures for translating cultural terms, Gottlieb's (1992) subtitle strategies, Venuti's (1995) domestication and foreignization ideology, and the framework of social actor representation. The analysis reveals 85 culture-specific items distributed across five categories: social culture, ecology, social organizations, gestures and habits, and material culture. The most frequently applied strategies are transference, functional equivalence, paraphrase, adaptation, and substitution. The findings indicate that foreignization functions as cultural resistance by preserving key terms such as warok, lengger, and gemblak, while domestication functions as negotiation through strategies such as generalization, condensation, and adaptation. Drawing on social actor representation, the study shows that cultural identity in subtitles is articulated through practices of nomination, categorization, and functionalization, which illustrates how both the characters and Javanese culture are recontextualized in a global setting. Overall, the study argues that subtitling is not merely a linguistic transfer but an ideological arena that actively shapes perceptions of identity and cultural representation in international discourse.
Ahonen, L. (2021). Multimodal approaches to audiovisual translation: Hybrid meanings in subtitling. Journal of Audiovisual Studies, 5(2), 113–129.
Akabli, A., & Khaloufi, H. (2024). Foreignization in fansubbing: Negotiating cultural resistance in translation. Translation and Interpreting Studies, 19(1), 45–62.
Alawad, A., & Alosaimi, M. (2023). Transcreation in audiovisual translation: Creativity across cultures. International Journal of Translation and Communication, 12(3), 221–238.
Bellés-Calvera, M., & Quintana, A. (2021). Hybridization in subtitling: Audiovisual translation strategies across cultures. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 29(6), 743–759.
Bywood, L., Georgakopoulou, P., & Etchegoyhen, T. (2017). Embracing the threat: Neural machine translation in subtitling. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 25(3), 492–508.
Chaume, F. (2018). Audiovisual translation: Dubbing and subtitling. Routledge.
Chen, L. (2023). Foreignization and cultural authenticity in literary translation. Babel: International Journal of Translation, 69(2), 135–152.
Cruz, M., Garcia, E., & Ponce, J. (2019). Fansubbing as a strategy of cultural resistance. Journal of Language and Media, 11(4), 556–570.
Damayanti, N. (2020). Translation strategies for local communities in Indonesian texts. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 221–233.
Evianda, F., Nurani, D., & Setiawan, A. (2019). Gender and nomination strategies in discourse. Journal of Language and Literature, 9(1), 33–45.
Firdaus, A., & Nauly, L. (2022). Cultural translation in food-related terms: A study of Chefs. Journal of Cultural Linguistics, 14(2), 101–120.
Frosh, P. (1999). Identity and representation in media translation. Media, Culture & Society, 21(3), 355–376.
Gottlieb, H. (1992). Subtitling: A new university discipline. In C. Dollerup & A. Loddegaard (Eds.), Teaching Translation and Interpreting (pp. 161–170). John Benjamins.
Handayani, R. (2021). Functionalization of traditional occupations in translation. Journal of Cultural Studies, 19(2), 88–97.
Karimnia, A., Mohammadi, F., & Saeedi, M. (2020). Culture-specific items and conceptual borrowing in translation. International Journal of Linguistics, 12(4), 45–59.
Koentjaraningrat. (2009). Introduction to Anthropology. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.
Mehawesh, M., & Neimneh, S. (2021). Subtitling and cultural loss: The case of Theeb. Journal of Language and Translation, 12(2), 77–94.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Muslimah, R., Utami, S., & Kurniawan, A. (2023). Social categorization in online fan communities. Journal of Communication, 15(1), 41–56.
Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. Prentice Hall.
Nida, E. (1964). Towards a science of translating. Brill.
Osisanwo, W., & Iyoha, R. (2020). Protesters as freedom fighters or economic saboteurs? Functionalization in Nigerian media. Discourse & Society, 31(6), 645–662.
Polcz, K. (2008). Subtitling constraints and strategies. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 1(1), 45–59.
Ponton, D., Rossi, M., & Smecca, A. (2023). Translation and identity construction in media texts. Journal of Pragmatics, 202, 88–104.
Purnomo, H., Wijayanto, A., & Dewi, N. (2023). Functionalization in cultural branding. Journal of Cultural Communication, 7(2), 55–70.
Purwaningsih, D., & Gulö, I. (2021). Nomination and morality in crime news translation. Lingua Cultura, 15(1), 33–42.
Saleh, A., & Mohammed, H. (2023). Material culture and translation challenges. Asian Journal of Linguistics, 8(2), 123–135.
Sanatifar, S., & Ayob, N. (2022). Cultural reduction in Persian subtitle strategies. Iranian Journal of Translation Studies, 14(1), 67–85.
Satkauskaitė, I., & Astrauskienė, J. (2022). Dubbing and cultural adaptation: An analytical model. Translation & Interpreting Studies, 17(3), 399–418.
Setyaningsih, D. (2020). Cultural names and descriptive strategies in Javanese literature translation. Journal of Language and Culture, 12(2), 211–228.
Siddiq, F., & Ali, M. (2023). Ecological and gestural cultural terms in translation. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 13(2), 88–101.
Suriadi, I. (2020). Translation strategies and cultural bridging. Humanities, 32(3), 233–245.
Suyono, B. (2017). Social categorization and intergroup conflict. Journal of Social Psychology, 5(2), 55–67.
Syamsinar, R., Yuliana, D., & Muchtar, A. (2023). Transfer strategies in cultural subtitling. Indonesian Journal of English Linguistics, 9(1), 15–28.
Timko, J. (2023). Translation strategies in subtitling: Transcreation and explicitation. Perspectives, 31(2), 211–226.
Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). The representation of social actors. In C.R. Caldas-Coulthard & M. Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis (pp. 32–70). Routledge.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford University Press.
Venuti, L. (1995). The translator's invisibility: A history of translation. Routledge.
Venuti, L. (2003). The scandals of translation: Towards an ethics of difference. Routledge.
Venuti, L. (2008). The translator's invisibility (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Vula, E., & Tyfekçi, P. (2024). Adaptivity in cultural translation strategies. Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, 15(1), 55–70.
Zuo, Y., & Guo, C. (2024). Foreignization in song translation: Cultural implications. Translation Today, 18(2), 177–192
