Mask of the translator: Walter Benjamin and Metal Gear Solid's difficult relationship with localization

McLoughlin, John 2022. Mask of the translator: Walter Benjamin and Metal Gear Solid's difficult relationship with localization. Games and Culture 17 (7-8) , pp. 1036-1053. 10.1177/15554120221080947

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Jeremy Blaustein’s liberal translation of Metal Gear Solid (1998) was a critical creative intercession which helped facilitate the successful localization and positive reception – in the west – of a crucial early project in the development of 3d games. It can also be seen as an unacceptable liberty taken with a carefully produced script, one which too often puts the needs of a western ear ahead of faithfulness to the original. Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘The Task of the Translator’ and its inheritors in translation studies offer a definition of translation and its utility with which one can justify such a creative intervention as a necessary continuation in the life cycle of the original work and an honest interpretation of the game’s paratextual environment; in the localization of Metal Gear Solid Blaustein performed the task of the translator as Benjamin conceived it.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	1555-4120
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2022 15:28
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/149710

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item