Translating comics

rethinking the translation unit concept

Abstract

This article discuss the specificities of comics translation from the notion of translation unit, considering the enunciation and formal structures of this medium. Therefore, we present different conceptions about translation unit developed by Vinay & Darbelnet (1995) in order to demonstrate how the concept can be rethought and expanded in the context of multimodal languages, such as comics. In this sense, we present reflections on the comics language and its way of transmitting messages from authors such as Marion (1990), Baetens (2001), McCloud (2005) and Eco ([1965] 2008), as well as authors who reflected on the translation of this media, such as Zanettin (2014), Celotti (2014) and Kaindl (2020). In Brazil, the majority of comics consumed are foreign, therefore, translated. This work intends to contribute to the analysis of the translation of this medium, which research has been growing in recent years, even though comics translation is quite old in the country. Based on this, we analyze the translation of the French graphic novel Le photographe (2004) – in Brazil, O fotógrafo (2008) – by Didier Lefèvre, Emmanuel Guibert and Frédéric Lemercier, in order to present the enunciative and translational specificities of this work, in view to conceptualize the notion of plurisemiotic unity, which occurs through reading, with significant implications for its translation process.