Adaptation as multimodal product: Babylon Berlin — a case study

Abstract

Multimodality is a growing field of study within audiovisual translation studies, as it allows the analysis of all linguistic and non-linguistic elements that characterize audiovisual products. This approach considers that any text is composed of different modes or modalities such as image, sound, gestures, music or language, among others, which complement each other for the creation of meaning. The following research aims to apply this multimodal perspective to the process of adapting a literary work to the screen, understood as a translation between different semiotic systems, in which the content of written language is transferred through different semiotic systems to the audiovisual production. For this purpose, the procedure carried out in the adaptation of the German novel Der nasse Fisch (Kutscher 2007) into the successful television production Babylon Berlin (Arndt et al. 2017-present) is studied. Through the analysis of the scenes based on the novel, the combinations of the modes used in the creation of the multimodal product and their implications are analysed. As a result, it is found that non-verbal modes such as images and sounds are used exclusively to transfer part of the content of the novel to the screen, highlighting the need for non-linguistic perspectives in its study.