‘Lost’ in Translation? Korean and English Intercultural Communication in Fictional Telecinematic Dialogue
This study takes an approach to intercultural communication through the lens of fictional pragmatics (cf. Locher et al., 2023; Locher & Jucker, 2017), i.e., focuses on scripted intercultural interactions and to what extent these are scriptedly, i.e., deliberately, and (un)stereotypically (un)successful and (in)efficient. We adhere to one specific US American TV series, i.e., Lost (Abrams et al., 2004–2010) and one specific protagonist, i.e., Korean native speaker Jin-Soo Kwon, and his numerous intercultural interactions with English native speakers on the island they have all been stranded on.
We shall follow Kecskés in proposing a discourse (dialogue) segment analysis (2013) in order to reveal any pragmatic strategies of intercultural communication between the fictional speakers. This is done through a rigorous, detailed analysis of utterances in CA style, which also takes into account topic foci and shifts as the interlocutors diegetically negotiate meaning. Our analysis and coding of scripted turns will demonstrate in what ways and to what extent the creators of Lost (and any scriptwriters and actors involved) have dedicated space and scripted dialogue to issues of fictional yet reality-reflecting intercultural pragmatic relevance, whilst, at the same time, conforming to the modal constraints of a TV series’ episode.
References
Kecskés, I. (2013). Intercultural Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.
Locher, M. A. & Jucker, A. H. (2017). Pragmatics of Fiction. De Gruyter Mouton.
Locher, M. A., Jucker, A. H., Landert, D. & Messerli, T. C. (2023). Fiction and Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.