Introduction

T he present volume contains eight diverse approaches, by eight scholars from various European countries, to the analysis of a single audiovisual text entitled In Excelsis Deo. T he text is in fact Episode T en of the highly successful American television series The West Wing and while it contains inevitable intertextual connections with preceding and subsequent episodes (the chief of staff’s drug problems, Christmas preparations at the White House, the tragic murder of a gay schoolboy, some barely hatched love stories), it also features a self-contained story of a Korean War veteran who is given an unofficial military funeral through the machinations of a member of the White House staff. T he analysis of this text, which is particularly rich in the kind of linguistic, semantic, pragmatic, cultural and technical challenges found in audiovisual translation (AVT ), will also embrace the important area of audiovisual access for the sensorially disabled, namely the deaf and hard of hearing and the blind and sight-impaired. T hrough a process of careful re-examination and coordinated analysis, it is hoped that the similar or diverse methodologies, priorities or perceptions that emerge from the various contributions will provide stimuli for anyone working in the AVT sector, especially those in the media industry and in higher education.