Tradurre l’anomalia: la rappresentazione trans nei medical drama americani

The representation of transgender identities on the small screen has recently received growing academic attention. In particular, scholars have examined the historical representation of transgender characters and their ambivalent depictions in American television series (Capuzza and Spencer 2016; Lafrance et al. 2018; Abbott 2022), as well as the enduring trope of trans individuals as circus freaks (Bermúdez de Castro 2017). These portrayals resonate with the epistemology of the Wunderkammer: the trans body becomes an object of both marvel and uneasiness, simultaneously captivating and destabilising. In this perspective, the role of language in conveying these subjectivities becomes particularly relevant. This paper explores the intersection of translation and trans representation within two American medical dramas, focusing on how trans patients’ identities are constructed through dialogue and how they are (re)shaped in the Italian translations. Medical dramas often serve as spaces of exposition and fetishization of trans bodies, where the subject is perceived as a fascinating deviation to be scrutinised. In these narratives, transgender identities are rendered through portrayals that foreground their perceived oddity and they are often presented as exceptional cases useful to produce narrative tension, ethical dilemmas, or moments of revelation (Keegan 2013). Crucially, language is the mechanism by which this representation is enacted, shaping how trans identities are framed. By focusing on a selection of episodes from two renowned medical dramas – Grey’s Anatomy (2005-present) and The Good Doctor (2017-2024) – the aim of this paper is to observe how dialogues involving trans characters are rendered into Italian. Examining whether the target text preserves, alters, or neutralises the original meaning through the lens of Descriptive Translation Studies, this analysis is centred on the modalities through which curiosity regarding these characters is transposed in the Italian version of the selected TV series.