Publications

Publication details [#51876]

Panou, Despoina. 2022. Possibilising food translation in children’s literature: with a focus on Greek translations of Captain Underpants. Babel 68 (6) : 890–912.
Publication type
Article in jnl/bk
Publication language
English
Source language
Target language
Title as subject
Journal DOI
10.1075/babel

Abstract

Food is omnipresent in children’s literature, from Popeye’s Spinach to Detective Cluj’s Carpenter Gums, thus signifying its immense cultural value since cultures and societies are built upon food (Keeling and Pollard 2009, 6). Food narratives are capable of performing a number of functions ranging from evoking a sense of coziness and comfort to being a cause of temptation and power struggle. This article focuses on the English-Greek examination of translation patterns in the Captain Underpants series and on the critical discussion of the translation strategies that have been employed for the transferring of food items to Greek children. To this end, thirty-five examples of food references are analyzed using a purpose-built schema of translation procedures. The results indicate that translators make a conscious attempt to bring foreign dishes closer to the target language culture by adopting a variety of modification and substitution procedures. This study highlights the intrinsic role that the translation tendencies of preservation, modification, substitution, expansion, transcreation, omission, and creation play in enabling food translation.
Source : Based on abstract in journal