Accessibility and Audiovisual Language in Early Twentieth Century-Films

ABSTRACT: The emergence of the cinematograph marked the beginning of film history, as well as the evolution of audiovisual language and new forms of interaction between audiences and moving images. Within this context, the earliest manifestations of what would later be known as audiovisual translati...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rica Peromingo, Juan Pedro, Sáenz Herrero, Ángela
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/131808
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/131808
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:81'25
791
Accessibility
Audiovisual language
Early films
Cinema history
Audiovisual translation
Accesibilidad
Lenguaje audiovisual
Historia del cine
Traducción audiovisual
Traducción e interpretación
57 Lingüística
5701.12 Traducción
Descripción
Sumario:ABSTRACT: The emergence of the cinematograph marked the beginning of film history, as well as the evolution of audiovisual language and new forms of interaction between audiences and moving images. Within this context, the earliest manifestations of what would later be known as audiovisual translation also began to take shape. During the developmental stage of the early films, narrative and visual conventions of the cinematic medium gradually began to be established. In this process, figures such as narrators played a key role: they not only facilitated the understanding of films for a largely illiterate audience but also contributed significantly to making this new art form accessible. This study examines several factors that may be regarded as early antecedents of cinematic accessibility in the Spanish context. Despite the scarcity of written or audio records of these narrators’ interventions, specific references have been identified in the works of Sánchez Salas (1998, 2004, 2008, 2016), Montero Domínguez (2022), and Mirabent Espinosa (2016). As an illustrative example, this paper analyzes the case of Ramos de Castro, an actor and narrator, who in 1941 recorded explanatory comments for the film The Rent Collector (1921), offering a glimpse into this early form of audiovisual mediation.