Special issue of ‘Comicalités’ edited by Romain Becker (University of Angers) & Timothy Sirjacobs (KU Leuven)
In 1999, an article written by Klaus Kaindl already linked comics and the sociology of translation, marking a radical turn in the study of translated comics. For the first time, various aspects of comics translation were examined from a sociological perspective. This initial research was followed in 2008 by the monograph Comics in Translation, edited by Frederico Zanettin. In his introduction, Zanettin (2008, 19-20) points to the late inclusion of comics in the sociology of translation, noting in particular the limited number of articles dealing with the subject and the certainly interesting, yet often reductive perspectives through which it has traditionally been approached. Although comics had indeed been “fully reclaimed by intellectual circles” (D’oria and Conenna, 1979, 19, our translation) from the 1970s onwards, and despite Reiss’ (1982) promising article approaching comics translation from a multimodal point of view, the emphasis remained in most cases on the oral nature of the medium (see for example Fresnault-Deruelle, 1970; 1975; Caceres Würsig, 1995, 527-528). This perspective was also reflected in the few articles devoted to comics in translation (D’oria and Conenna, 1979; Sierra Soriano, 1999). Moreover, translation of this medium was seen as “constrained”, since it had to render “the comical effect” (Santi, 1983, our translation) in a space graphically delimited by boxes and speech bubbles (Mayoral, Kelly and Gallardo, 1988).
Since Kaindl’s article and the monograph edited by Zanettin, this situation has (slightly) changed. Both the inclusion of comics in translation studies (Kaindl, 2010; Mälzer (ed.), 2015) and the recognition of translation within the comics industry (Berthou, 2016, 45; Altenberg and Owen, 2015, i; Evans, 2017) exemplify this evolution. In addition, a good number of articles, symposia and monographs have been dedicated to the place reserved for translated comics in a multitude of countries (see, among others, Kaindl, 2010; Brienza, 2016; Giaufret, 2020; Öztürk and Tarakçıoğlu, 2020; Rodríguez Rodríguez, 2021). More recently, a special issue of the journal inTRAlinea (2023), edited by Michał Borodo looked at the ways in which translations reimagine comics, whereas a special issue of the journal Mémoires du livre/ Studies in Book Culture (2023) tackled the transfers/circulations of this medium.
Yet, while the relationship between comics and the sociology of translation has evolved, the latter has also not ceased to renew itself. This thematic issue therefore examines new sociological approaches applied to comics in translation, favoring a more theoretical framework that does not restrict contributions to geographical, cultural or linguistic areas, as has often been the case for comics (Rannou and Ya-Chee-Chan, 2018). It instead seeks to highlights exchanges across time and space. To this end, we invite contributions that focus on one of three complementary axes: actors, power relations and translation choices that go beyond the textual.
Submission guidelines
This call for papers is open to all researchers, regardless of their status and origins. Abstract submissions should include two separate documents :
- A short bio-bibliographical notice.
- An anonymized abstract in French or English of no more than 3000 characters (with spaces). The abstract will present the theoretical positioning and the corpus, as well as the main conclusions that are expected.
Abstract proposals should be sent before September 1, 2024 to: romain.becker@ens-lyon.fr / timothy.sirjacobs@kuleuven.be
Abstracts will be evaluated anonymously by the editorial board of Comicalités: after acceptance, and with possible suggestions, the article will be written for a total size varying between 25,000 and 50,0000 characters, with spaces. Completed articles will be expected by January 15, 2025.
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