Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs
Publication Date
Spring 4-29-2020
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the question of translator roles in literary theory. I characterize these roles between positions that have traditionally been described by literary and philosophical theorists such as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. By examining the products of translation (French-language bandes-dessinées and their English translations), and considering critical literary and translation theories, I demonstrate the unique position held by translators and their work through the proposal of what I call the translator-function (modeled after Foucault’s author-function). The principal aim of this thesis is to problematize preconceived ideas about translators and to examine the unique position of the translator in literary tradition. I propose therefore to expand contemporary literary theory to include translation and those who produce it. Translation, I contend, is worthy of critical literary consideration rather than simply being a necessary function within the market forces of global literary industries. Translation figures perform essential and often transformative functions in the transmission of literary and cultural information from one language community to another, while oscillating between the positions of reader and author in very distinctive ways. This thesis will demonstrate that the translator exists at the threshold of these essential roles and enacts indispensable elements of these figures in his or her work. The concept of the translator-function will assist in conceiving the translator’s role and thus be formulated through a consideration of the translator’s various roles in negotiating a source text’s language, visual elements, influences, contexts, and readership in the target language.
Keywords
Hergé, Tintin, French, Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, cultural turn
Document Type
Thesis
Language
English
Degree Name
French
Level of Degree
Masters
Department Name
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
First Committee Member (Chair)
Dr. Francis Higginson
Second Committee Member
Dr. Marina Peters-Newell
Third Committee Member
Dr. Stephen Bishop
Recommended Citation
Gomez, Ryan C.. "The Translator-Function: Translating Bande-Dessinée for the Anglophone Reader." (2020). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/fll_etds/138
Included in
European Languages and Societies Commons, French and Francophone Literature Commons, Language Interpretation and Translation Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Translation Studies Commons
