Subtitling in the Age of Streaming: An Analysis of the English and Italian Versions of "Squid Game"

This thesis explores the field of Audiovisual Translation (AVT), with a particular focus on the practice of subtitling in the era of global streaming platforms. It begins by tracing the historical development of AVT and examining its establishment as an academic discipline within Translation Studies. It then outlines the main features of subtitling, its contemporary relevance, and the constraints that characterize this mode of translation. Furthermore, the chapter presents key subtitling strategies, particularly those proposed by Gottlieb and Pedersen, and discusses fundamental theoretical concepts such as domestication and foreignization. The second chapter addresses the rise of streaming services, with particular attention to Netflix, and the increasing demand for multilingual content in a globalized media environment. It explores issues related to localization strategies, production workflows, and platform-specific guidelines, while also considering how emerging technologies such as machine translation, cloud-based subtitling tools, and artificial intelligence are reshaping professional practices and influencing translation quality. The third chapter provides an overview of Squid Game and its cultural context, examining the global reception of the series and the controversies that emerged regarding the quality and accuracy of its English subtitles. It also outlines the methodological approach adopted for the comparative analysis conducted in this study. Finally, the fourth chapter presents a comparative analysis of the English and Italian subtitles of the series, applying Pedersen’s and Gottlieb’s theoretical frameworks. The analysis is organized into thematic categories such as slang, profanity, and cultural adaptation, and includes dedicated sections on cultural references and honorifics, the tension between cultural specificity and global standardization in the representation of traditional Korean games, and the rendering of humor and idiomatic expressions.