The Picturebook: an Eye-opener for Translators.Looking into the Interlingual Interplay of the Verbal and the Visual

• Main Author: Rankin, Karen Philippa
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: Transalation; Picturebooks; Verbal; Visual
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/1462

Faculty of Humanities School of Translators and Interpretors 9809116e [e-mail] === The aim of this paper is to explore the various translation problems that may arise from the verbal-visual relationships characteristic of picturebooks. Based on the inherent interaction of two semiotic systems, namely the verbal and the visual, picturebooks must be read, interpreted and translated as a ‘whole’. Translators must thus pay equal attention to the words and pictures as well as to other visual elements that contribute to the overall effect of picturebooks. The case study involves an analysis of two picturebooks written and illustrated by Babette Cole: Princess Smartypants (1996) and Prince Cinders (1997), and their French translations – Princesse Finemouche (1999) and Prince Gringalet (1999). By analysing the ways in which two semiotic systems (the verbal and the visual) interact in the two picturebooks and their translations, the study attempts to answer the following question: to what extent does the translation of a picturebook maintain a unity of words, pictures and effects?