Approach to the translation of sound in comic books
Paula Igareda | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona – TransMedia Catalonia – CAIAC
The relationship between texts and images in comics is essential from the graphic point of view and for the understanding of the story. Hence, the translation of comics has certain peculiarities that other literature genres do not have, partly due to its combination of iconic language and literary language.Among the wide array of interesting topics within this field, we are going to focus on a great challenge for translators: the graphic and phonetic values of the sounds in comics. Technical advances have improved comic books translation: nowadays modifying an element of the vignette no longer involves redrawing the whole animation. Thus, the translation of this literature genre can now focus on other problematic issues, such as the translation of sounds. Taking into account the lack of categorization of these sounds, this article deals with the translation of inarticulate sounds, interjections and onomatopoeias from English comic books into Spanish in order to observe the existing trends in these issues and to confirm if the new technologies have changed the translators’ task in the last 25 years.
Keywords: comics, translation, sound, onomatopoeias, interjections
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Sound in comic books
- 3.The translation of sound in comic books and translation proposals
- 3.1The translation of sound in comic books
- 3.2Translation proposals
- 4.Analysis of the sounds in comic books and their translation
- 4.1Localization and basic translation techniques
- 4.2Analysis
- 4.3Distinctive characteristics of each comic
- 4.3.1The ordinary translations and use of loans in Maus, Kick Ass, Palestine, Ghost World and V for Vendetta
- 4.3.2The translation of violence sounds in 300 and Sin City
- 4.3.3The special case of Hate
- 5.Conclusions
- Notes
-
References
Published online: 03 November 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.63.3.03iga
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.63.3.03iga
References
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan
Carreras Goicoechea, Maria, Estefanía Flores Acuña and Monica Provezza
Castillo Cañellas, Daniel
Chapman, Raymond
Cruz Cabanillas, Isabel, and Cristina Tejedor Martínez
Cuenca, Maria Josep
Flores Acuña, Estefanía
Hurtado Albir, Amparo
Inose, Hiroko
Kaindl, Klaus
Liberman, Mark
2004 “ ‘Ho ho ho’, she laughed in a refined feminine way”. Language Log. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001238.html
Matamala, Anna
Mayoral, Roberto
Mayoral, Roberto and Dorothy Kelly
Mayoral, Roberto, Dorothy Kelly and Natividad Gallardo
Mayoral, Roberto
Payrató, Lluís
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbraum, Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartik
Santoyo, Julio César
Shuttleworth, Mark and Moira Cowie
Valero Garcés, Carmen
Young, Hiu-Tung
Yuste Frías, José
La traducción especializada de textos con imagen: el cómic”. In El traductor profesional ante el próximo milenio. II Jornadas sobre la formación y profesión del traductor e intérprete, section 4, chapter IV .Villaviciosa de Odón: Universidad Europea CEES.