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Translation and the Construction of Identity: Abstracts
Date: 12-14 August 2004
Venue: Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea
Orhun Yakin
As a medium of communication, the cartoon itself could generate a substantial
amount of information for the receptor in a cross-cultural process, yet one
cannot be quite sure if this would be enough to convey the intended message or
effect. In many cases a substantial but not excessive amount of contextual or
background information is required. It is assumed that as long as the source
text is not replete with send-ups to domestic political events nor with regional
dialects and issues, an acceptable translation could be achieved. The aim of
such translations is not always to generate laughter (the very notion and
complexity of humour does not permit this) but to convey the intended message.
As it is, the visual aspect, particularly typography, plays an important role in
transmitting this message to the reader. Metin Üstündağ, a very popular
cartoonist and humorist in Turkey’s best selling humour weekly Leman, for
example, employs bold letters in abundance to emphasize his point in his cartoon
series Sunday Lovers. In these cartoons Üstündağ usually deals with lonely and
alienated young and middle-aged city dwellers and couples in bed just before,
during and after their lovemaking. In these single-frame cartoons, the bedroom
becomes a sort of an arena where everything is explicitly portrayed in speech or
thought balloons. In these balloons, there are numerous stock expressions taken
from colloquial Turkish which present considerable obstacles for the prospective
translator who wants to convey them into English.
Panel 7: The Verbal, the Visual, the Translator
Visual and Verbal Aspects in Comic Translation
Hacettepe University of Ankara, Turkey
I will present various translations, undertaken by myself, of some selected
cartoons by Üstündağ and focus on the strategies I have applied during the
translation process.
© IATIS 2003