Thump, Whizz, Poom

Abstract

Notwithstanding their importance as a segment of high-volume translation, comics have largely been neglected in Translation Studies. This paper presents a theoretical framework for studying the translation of comics as a social practice. On the premise that the production and reception of texts is dependent on their position and relative value in a given society, comics are first analyzed as a social phenomenon with the help of Bourdieu's theory of the cultural field. The translation-relevant elements of comics are then identified on the linguistic, typographic, and pictorial levels, and concepts of rhetoric are used to establish a classification of translation strategies which applies to both verbal and nonverbal textual material. Finally, a number of examples are discussed to highlight the diversity of translation strategies for the various elements of comics.