Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English-language Translation Michaela Macková Specifics of Comics Translation Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek 2012 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature 2 Acknowledgement I would like to thank to my supervisor Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek for his valuable advice and kind support and to Martin Buchal and Jiří Pavlovský for their insights into the processes of comics publication and translation. 3 Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 6 2. Comics ................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Defining Comics ........................................................................................ 9 2.2 Types of Comics ...................................................................................... 11 2.3 Short History of Comics .......................................................................... 15 2.4 Comics and Comics Translation in the Czech Republic .......................... 18 3. Comics Translation .............................................................................................. 23 3.1 The Publication Process ........................................................................... 23 3.2 The Translation Process ........................................................................... 30 4. Specifics of Comics Translation .......................................................................... 35 4.1 Foreignizing, Domestication and Localization ........................................ 35 4.2 Translation Constrained by Pictures ........................................................ 37 4.3 Translation Constrained by Balloons and Caption Boxes ....................... 41 4.4 Special Signs ............................................................................................ 45 4.5 Onomatopoeic Words .............................................................................. 48 4.6 Proper Names, Nicknames and Neologisms ............................................ 49 4.7 Intertextuality ........................................................................................... 51 5. Translation Analysis ............................................................................................ 53 5.1 Calvin and Hobbes ................................................................................... 53 5.2 Batman: Hush ........................................................................................... 66 5.3 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ................................................ 82 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 93 4 7. Works Cited and Consulted ................................................................................. 97 7.1 Primary Sources ....................................................................................... 97 7.2 Secondary sources .................................................................................... 97 7.3 Framing Sources .................................................................................... 100 8. Czech Resumé ................................................................................................... 101 9. English Resumé ................................................................................................. 102 5 1. Introduction Comics is a literary and artistic form which is based on the interaction of two semiotic systems – pictures and writings. Thanks to its history and tradition it is a very culture-specific form as well. Both of these facts influence the process of translation and give it certain specifics of which a translator intending to translate comics should be aware. Comics translation can be seen as an easy task and both the specifics of comics translation and the unique traits of comics are often neglected when possible difficulties of comics translation are considered. ―A number of studies […] use comics mostly as a source of examples to discuss the translation of puns, proper names, onomatopoeias, citations, allusions and other features of language which are often found in comics but are not specific to them‖ (Zanettin, ―Comics in Translation Studies‖ 3). Even though the necessity to deal with translations of onomatopoeic words, proper names etc. does not arise exclusively in comics translation, there are some specific usages of these forms which can be found only in comics and together with other various specifics of comics translation they deserve a special attention. For a translator it is useful not only to be aware of the specifics of comics translation, but also to understand comics. In that way s/he can make sure, that the quality of translation will not suffer. As Heiskenen says: ―It would be useful to improve translators‘ understanding of comics through a more systematic and analytical study of their specifics and elements, and most importantly of the interplay of word and image‖ (in Koponen 1). Therefore this thesis offers the list and the discussion of the specific aspects of comics translation, and the analysis of three Czech comics translations. In addition, because the translation of comics can be seen as 6 ―a localization process, in which the translation of the verbal components of translated comics is only the part of the adaptation of the product to the target locale‖ (Zanettin, ―The Translation of Comics‖ 200), this thesis describes the processes of both the translation and the publication of comics. Chapter two of the thesis explains what comics is, focuses on its history and describes different types of comics. The historical summary here is not very extensive, as it is offered only as the basic framework for the reader to be able to classify comics properly and to better understand the complexity of comics as an artistic and literary form. Considering the fact that the main interest of this thesis lies in English-Czech translation, the history is focused on the Czech Republic and the production of translated comics in this country. Chapter three of the thesis introduces the process of translation and the process of publication as it happens in the Czech Republic. This part of the thesis explains and is intended to prove that some editorial and publisher‘s decisions can influence the translator and his/her translation of comics. It is based on the personal experience in the field of comics translation and on the interviews with Czech publishers, mainly Martin Buchal who works in BB art publishing house, Jiří Pavlovský who works in Crew publishing house, and Václav Dort who works in Comics Centrum publishing house. Chapter four of the thesis describes the specifics of the comics translation and chapter five shows them on the concrete examples. The list of specifics has been constructed based on theoretical works on comics translation (mainly on works published in Federico Zanettin‘s collection of essays Comics in Translation), on the interviews with the Czech translators Richard Podaný and Viktor Janiš, and again on the personal experience in the field of comics translation. Chapter five consists 7 of three analyses of three comics translated into Czech: Calvin and Hobbes (in Czech Calvin and Hobbes) translated by Richard Podaný, Batman: Hush (in Czech Batman: Ticho) translated by Jiří Pavlovský and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (in Czech Liga výjimečných gentlemanů) translated by Viktor Janiš. The analyses focus mainly on the said specifics of comics translation. Chapters four and five combined are intended to show whether the pictorial content of comics and balloons really are constraint for the translator, whether and how the target culture‘s expectations and the translators‘ awareness of the specifics of comics translation influence the analysed translations and whether the specifics of comics translation differ for various types of comics. The findings are summarized in chapter six which contains the conclusion of the whole thesis. 8 2. Comics The discussion of the process of comics translation and its specifics cannot proceed without explaining what comics is, where its roots are and what are its unique traits. Information of this kind helps to understand comics better and translate it better. The following subchapters discuss various definitions of the term ―comics‖, show the variety of types of comics, and present its short history focused on comics translations in the Czech Republic. 2.1 Defining Comics For some people comics is a funny collection of cartoons aimed at children, for others it is a colourful magazine presenting superheroes aimed at adolescents and for another group of people it can be a profound art with a deep meaning aimed at adults. The opinions and definitions differ and the examples of comics analysed in chapter five show that comics can be all of that. The question is, and this chapter tries to find an answer to it, whether any universal definition exists. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary published in 2005 ―comics‖ is defined as ―the section of a newspaper that contains COMIC