Myths, Mutants and Superducks: Exporting Italian Comics
Myths, Mutants and Superducks: Exporting Italian Comics Alex Valente PhD in Literary Translation University of East Anglia School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing September 2015 Abstract Even before its current fledgling state, the field of Comics Studies in the Anglophone parts of the world has been interested in the influences received from other international incarnations of the comics medium. Manga, bande dessinnée, tebeo, campesinos, quadrinhos, fumetti, cartoons, strips, have all been responsible, in part, for the development of both the medium and its related academic fields. Many studies, pieces of criticism and comparison have been offered showing the importance of those texts, both in their original language and in English translation, their impact on other parts of the industry, and on their readerships. What has been lacking, so far, is a study into the process of translation that allowed for those texts to be read, studied and incorporated into the multifaceted archives of the comics scholarship, academic or fan-based. The aim of my thesis is to provide a critical manual appealing to three audiences: the translation scholar, comics scholar, and practising translator. I analyse – from a translation and comics studies perspective – the interaction between image and text (signplay), the use of humour, and the use of multicultural and multilingual elements in the Italian fumetto. I do so by offering comparisons with current Anglophone publications, informed by a history of the development on the medium in the West, and by focusing on three exemplary Italian series: Dampy (2000-), Rat-Man (1989-), and PKNA (1996-2000, 2014, 2015). I use descriptive theoretical discussions to form a practical set of strategies for the process of translating Italian comics into English, by focusing on the functions with which the texts operate in the three macro-areas I define, and I provide extensive samples for each strategy devised.
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