The Ethics of Intercultural Translation: Analysing the Figure of the African and African- American in Contemporary Spanish Television Advertising between 20th and 21st centuries

Abstract

[eng] This dissertation examines how the figures of the African and the African-American have been translated in the context of the Spanish contemporary television advertising of products from the 1980s to the second decade of the twenty-first century. By examining five advertisement samples, it clarifies that the tendency has drastically changed from a caricatured image in the 1980s advertising, to an improved image in a contemporary environment of creation responsibility. However, the situation continues to feed a heated debate on racial issues. This dissertation challenges the argument that contemporary Spanish television advertising portrays the figures of the above mentioned cultures without mockery or stereotypes. Data have been collected from a specifically designed survey on the psychological effects of these portrayals. This survey was based on specific television commercials broadcast in Spain by the multinational companies Afflelou, Navidul, Special K, Cola-Cao, and Conguitos. It was addressed to fifty-one people living in Spain born from the 1930s to the first decade of the twenty-first century and from different backgrounds. The analysis of the responses in this survey shows three issues: 1) a variety of perception tendencies depending on age; 2) a relatively improved shift in the portrayal of these cultures due to a sense of creation responsibility 3) the prevailing stereotypes that the African and the Afro-descendant are still suffering today.