Culture-specific references in historical musicals: categorisation and translation challenges in the subtitles of Hamilton

This research’s interest in Hamilton arises from how this historical musical explores the contradictions of the American Revolution, which, despite being grounded in principles of independence and democracy, pursued these ideals only partially. The musical’s significance lies particularly in the choice of the cast, a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) ensemble, and in the incorporation of musical genres such as rap and hip-hop. The all-white historical figures of the American Revolution are represented on stage by the legacy of those excluded from active participation in it. This powerful message is thus conveyed through “symbolic macro realia” on stage, which craft implicit connections between the past and the present. This communicative impact is enforced by culture-specific references (CSRs) or realia (e.g., Ranzato 2010, 2016; Pedersen 2011), which constitute the object of this study, including their translation in Italian subtitles delivered no later than 2021 on the Disney+ platform. After categorising types of CSRs according to an adaptation of Díaz Cintas and Remael's taxonomy (2007), the research highlights a prevalence of “historically loaded” references and three intersecting diachronic macro-areas of CSRs: the time of the narrated story, the time of narration, and an intermediate area with a common diachronic connotation. A transparency scale is devised to shape the analysis of the Italian translation, where each category signifies nuanced levels of transparency based on the type of CSR and its co-text. The analysis highlights the use of direct and oblique translation strategies (Vinay and Darbelnet, 1958/2002). Direct forms seem to prevail for those CSRs whose interpretation can be transmitted through encyclopedic knowledge or a context that aids transparency. Oblique translation, instead, seems to cluster around opaque contexts, such as microcultural references without contextualisation and metaphoric or idiomatic references. In general, results indicate that direct translation strategies, regardless of the transparency of the context, may not always be adequate to clarify microcultural CSRs, affecting both the target and the source audience. Moreover, the limitations imposed by the subtitling context pose further challenges for the disambiguation of realia. The multi-perspective approach sheds light on the intricate complexity of translating culturally and historically “loaded” references in a historical musical like Hamilton.