Subtitling Naguib Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt’s literary icon, wrote a large number of novels that were turned into films. As the DVD industry in Egypt enters its second decade, the number of these films appearing on DVD and subtitled into English is also increasing. Despite this trend, academic institutions in Egypt, and elsewhere in the Arab world, remain largely oblivious to the new specialization of audiovisual translation. So far, academic research into audiovisual translation, particularly subtitling Arabic-language films into English, has been minuscule. This paper examines the complex task of subtitling one of Mahfouz’s most popular films, Midaq Alley. It argues that subtitling a classic film is a lot more than just translating the film dialogue and the subtitler needs more resources than just the dialogue list and the video of the film.