"Looking for Life on Mars": Subtitling a documentary

The present thesis examines the world of Audiovisual Translation with a primary focus on subtitling. It also proposes a detailed study of the specialized languages of science, astronomy, and the language of astronomical popularization as the aim of the thesis is to offer a translation proposal for subtitling the astronomical documentary "Looking for Life on Mars” into Italian. The work is therefore at the crossroads of specialized popularizing translation and subtitling. The study followed a three-phase method. The first phase was devoted to the full transcription of the dialogues in the original language. In the next step, the translation was produced paying specific attention to rendering it appropriate for the target audience, that is, an inexpert audience in this subject. The third and final stage was dedicated to the creation of the subtitles using the software Aegisub. A final commentary is provided to explain and outline the translation macro-strategies adopted and the strategic choices made to comply with the spatial and temporal constraints of subtitling. In the analysis, the main differences in conveying the content in the two target languages are also highlighted. Moreover, this reflection includes a comparison of how certain concepts within the documentary are expressed using the popularizing language of astronomy to fulfill the purpose of the documentary and how instead they should be communicated through LSP.