Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Magisterská diplomová práce Bc. Ondřej Havlík 2020 Bc. Ondřej Havlík Hřbet 20 20 Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English-language Translation Bc. Ondřej Havlík Translation of Comics Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph. D. 2020 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D., for his support, advice and patience during the writing process. Furthermore, I would like to thank my family for their continuous support during my studies as well as my friends who helped me when I most needed it. Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 1. The Inner Workings of Comics .................................................................................... 3 1.1. Definition of Comics .............................................................................................. 3 1.2. Comics as a Medium .............................................................................................. 4 1.3. Panel as a Symbol of Space and Time ................................................................... 5 1.4. Gutters, Closure and Time Jumps .......................................................................... 6 1.5. The Textual Side of Comics ................................................................................... 8 1.6. Text and Images Combined ................................................................................. 10 1.7. The Representation of Sound ............................................................................... 10 2. A Brief History of Comics .......................................................................................... 13 2.1. The Era of Superheroes and Female Characters .................................................. 15 2.2. World War II and the Growing Popularity Among Children .............................. 18 2.3. Diversification After World War II ...................................................................... 19 2.4. Comics in the Czech Republic ............................................................................. 21 3. Translation of Comics ................................................................................................. 24 3.1. Loci of Translation ............................................................................................... 24 3.2. Spatial Limitation and Similarity to Translating Subtitles ................................... 26 3.3. Translation of Names and Aliases........................................................................ 28 3.3.1. Superheroes’ Aliases ..................................................................................... 28 3.3.2. Names of Fables ............................................................................................ 30 3.4. Translation of Onomatopoeic Words ................................................................... 32 3.5. Special Symbols ................................................................................................... 34 4. Analysis of Comic Books’ Translations ..................................................................... 37 4.1. Batman: Arkham Asylum .................................................................................... 37 4.1.1. Spatial Limitation and Linguistic Paratext .................................................... 38 4.1.2. Wordplays and References ............................................................................ 40 4.1.3. Characters’ Names ......................................................................................... 42 4.1.4. Onomatopoeic Expressions ........................................................................... 44 4.2. Blacksad ............................................................................................................... 46 4.2.1. Storytelling and Spatial Limitation ............................................................... 46 4.2.2. Animal-themed Wordplays ........................................................................... 49 4.2.3. Characters’ Names and Nicknames ............................................................... 51 4.2.4. Songs ............................................................................................................. 52 4.2.5. Linguistic Paratext ......................................................................................... 54 4.2.6. Onomatopoeic Expressions ........................................................................... 56 4.3. V for Vendetta ...................................................................................................... 58 4.3.1. Spatial Limitation and Titles ......................................................................... 58 4.3.2. Character’s Names ......................................................................................... 62 4.3.3. Onomatopoeic Expressions ........................................................................... 63 4.3.4. Linguistic Paratext ......................................................................................... 64 4.3.5. Quotations, Poems and Songs ....................................................................... 66 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 70 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 73 Primary Sources .......................................................................................................... 73 Secondary Sources ...................................................................................................... 73 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 76 Resumé ............................................................................................................................ 77 Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 78 Introduction Comics as a medium was often overlooked in research, as it was considered to be a medium focused mainly on children. It was also considered to be a literary genre rather than an independent medium. Because of its nature as a medium, comics has its own set of tools it uses for storytelling, and it is these tools that differentiate comics from other media. For this reason, comics also presents its own problems when it comes to translation, which translators should be aware of. Therefore, this thesis presents these problematic areas in order to show how exactly is comics different from other media (or in what ways it is the same) and how these problematic areas are often dealt with. It is important not only to know about the specific problems in regard to comics translation but also to understand how comics works in the first place, as without understanding the medium, its translation could turn out to be problematic. The first chapter of this thesis focuses on the definition of comics as a medium. It presents all the different tools comics uses and shows how it conveys message so that readers understand not only what is happening in the pictures but also what each presented element means. This chapter offers explanation of how comics represent time and sound and shows how text and images can work together to form a story. If one wants to understand this medium, it is also important to know how it began and how it developed throughout the years. The second chapter presents a brief history of comics. It speaks about why comics is popular nowadays and why it was popular in the past, highlighting important events and people that in some way participated in the development of this medium. Furthermore, one of the subchapters is dedicated to the history of Czech comics and its rises and falls together with its current state. 1 Chapter three then deals with the problematic areas of comics translation. This part of the thesis explains what areas translators should be aware of when translating this medium, why some of the areas are problematic and how they are usually dealt with. Even though some of the problematic areas presented in this chapter are not exclusively related to comics, for example characters’ names, they are still mentioned because they might be problematic in this medium more than in others. Chapter four then applies these problematic areas into practice and shows them on concrete examples. This chapter consists of analyses of three comic books and their translation into Czech by Richard Podaný: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Blacksad and V for Vendetta. The analysis focuses mainly on the problematic areas presented in the third chapter. The aim of the analysis is to determine if these problematic areas are really as problematic as they seem to be and to show how they are dealt with. The findings are then summarised in the last chapter that also concludes this thesis. 2 1. The Inner Workings of Comics In order to proceed, it must first be explained what comics is and how it works. This information will