Dutch Picture Books in Swedish Translation Towards a Model for ...

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Dutch Picture Books in Swedish Translation Towards a Model for Multimodal Analysis∗ Sara VAN MEERBERGEN Stockholm University

Abstract

This paper considers the translation of picture books. It explores how multimodal analysis as proposed by Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006) can be integrated into a descriptive model for translation analysis as proposed by Toury (1995). As picture book texts combine both visual and verbal means of expression, a study of the two semiotic modes must be included in a translation analysis of these texts. Because translated picture books are printed in coproduction, visual text components of the source text are combined with new verbal components in the target text. It has been argued that the co-printing of picture books leads to an amalgamate market avoiding culture-specific elements in the images. This view however only takes into consideration the physical appearance of the images and thus ignores the semiotic content that these images get when placed within the context of a text. By using a multimodal analysis as part of a translation analysis not only the changing semiotic interplay between the verbal and the visual can be studied, it also allows the study of how the semiotic content of images changes when placed into a new textual and socio-cultural context.

1. Introduction

Until recently, translation studies have focused mainly on the translation of ‘texts’ in the traditional sense of the word – that is, texts consisting of printed words. In a recent issue of the Translator’s Journal Meta (2008, 53/1), special attention was paid to the translation of texts consisting not simply of verbal components but also integrating (audio)visual aspects, such as film texts (Baumgarten 2008), advertising texts (Smith 2008) and picture book texts (Oittinen 2008). These contributions reflect a growing interest within the discipline of translation studies in the study of what Kress and van Leeuwen (2006: 178) call “multimodal texts”, i.e. “any text whose meanings are realized through more than one semiotic code”.1 * The author of this article wants to thank Petra och Carl Erik Hedborgs Stiftelse, the foundation granting me a scholarship to participate in the Cetra Doctoral Summer School 2008. I would also like to acknowledge Mercis for giving me permission to use an illustration by Dick Bruna, copyright by Mercis bv, 1963. 1 Although earlier versions of this book were published in 1990 and 1996, this paper refers to the new and revised version from 2006. © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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This paper focuses on the translation of picture books. As has been shown widely in earlier studies, the translation of children’s literature is not only influenced by general sociocultural norms in the target culture but also in particular by didactic and pedagogical norms prevailing in the receiving culture (see e.g. Shavit 1981; Ben Ari 1992; Heldner 1995; Surmatz 1996; O’Sullivan 2005; Lathey 2006). In addition to this, also economic factors play a significant role in the translating of children’s literature. An important precondition for the translation of picture books is the possibility of international co-productions. It is argued by O’Sullivan (2005: 101) that such co-productions give rise to a growing international culture of picture books where images are designed for the international market and culture-specific elements are being levelled out. Several studies on the translation of picture books have at the same time pointed out cases where culture-specific elements (including words) in images were changed or ‘censured’ in order to fit target culture norms (see e.g. O’Sullivan 2005: 8687). Other studies have focussed on how the translation of the words in picture books can lead to a changing narrative interplay between words and images (O’Sullivan 1999; Nikolajeva and Scott 2001: 29-41). These studies have primarily taken an outcome in literary theories describing narrative functions of images. In this paper picture book texts and their translations will be studied from a social semiotic point of view and the aim will be to look at how social meaning – rather than literary narration – is created through words, images and their interaction. Special focus will be on how pedagogical interaction with the reader is created in picture book texts and on how child images are constructed. These aspects will be studied by integrating multimodal analysis, as proposed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), as a text-analytical tool into a model for descriptive translation analysis proposed by Toury (1995). The picture book text will thus be considered as a multimodal text where meaning is created through a complex interaction between verbal and visual text components. The notion of ‘text’ will thus not be used to refer to verbal text components (words) only, but will also be considered to include visual text components (images).2 Given that the translation of picture books is a process of coproduction, visual text components of the ST (source text) are combined with new verbal 2

This definition of the picture book text as multimodal text could be expanded to integrate tactile or material text components (e.g. quality of paper, format, cuttings in the pages, material fabric, etc.) as these also can be considered to be semiotic resources in the picture book text (see Kress and van Leeuwen 2006: 215-238 on ‘Materiality and meaning’). As picture books are to be read aloud, a kind of oral text component – although the oral would probably manifest itself in the text through verbal and visual means using for example typography or rhyme – could also be integrated as part of the picture book text and certainly needs to be taken into consideration when studying the translation of picture books (see Oittinen 2003 and Dollerup 2003). Exactly how material and oral text components can be integrated in a multimodal analysis for picture book texts needs further exploring; this paper will therefore mainly focus on verbal and visual text components. © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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components in the TT (target text), causing a changing semiotic interaction between the verbal and visual text components. This might in its turn also result into a change in meaning created through the pictures as they are placed in a new textual and socio-cultural context. The next section of this paper discusses in more detail how a multimodal text analysis can be integrated into a model for descriptive translation analysis. As the ideas presented in this paper are part of a larger study of Dutch and Flemish picture books translated into Swedish between 1995 and 2006, the model will then be applied to examples drawn from this study. A multimodal translation analysis will then be carried out on a picture book text by Dutch picture book artist Dick Bruna.

2. Towards a translation model for multimodal analysis

This study is descriptive and analytical in nature as it aims to describe how picture books are translated and how they come to be accepted as cultural artefacts in the target culture. This aim fits in with the approach of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), where translation is seen as a cultural and historical phenomenon and thus shaped and determined by its sociocultural context (Hermans 1999: 5). Translation is furthermore conceived of as a social act, regulated by socio-cultural norms prevailing in the receiving culture, i.e. the target culture (Toury 1995). The general model used in this paper to study the translation of picture books is based on descriptive models proposed by Lambert and van Gorp (1985) and Toury (1995). In both these models, the study of factors in the socio-cultural context surrounding and initiating the actual translation is combined with the study of the choices made during the translation act itself. A starting point for the analysis will be Toury’s distinction between preliminary and operational translation norms. Toury includes two sets of considerations in the preliminary norms: translation policy, i.e. factors determining the selection of texts to be translated, and directness of translation, i.e. what tolerance there is for indirect translations and how this reflects attitudes about how translation itself is perceived in the target culture (Toury 1995: 58-59). These preliminary norms thus deal with contextual factors conditioning the actual translation. Within operational norms Toury considers the factors guiding the choices made during the actual translation process and thus affecting the distribution of linguistic material in the TT compared to the ST (Toury 1995: 58-59). In order to be able to analyse both verbal

© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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and visual text components of the picture book text and their interrelation, a multimodal text analysis of both ST and TT will be performed at this stage of the analysis. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) developed what they call “a grammar of visual design” in order to study how meaning is created through visual communication. They work within the framework of social semiotics, applying Michael Halliday’s System Functional Grammar (SFG – commonly referred to in a wider sense as System Functional Linguistics, SFL) to the analysis of images and visual design. Underlying SFL is the thought that all grammatical forms are to be seen as “resources for encoding interpretations of experience and forms of social (inter)action” (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006: 1). Grammatical forms are thus seen as semiotic resources, i.e. signs having a potential to create meaning in a specific social context, rather than as signs where a specific meaning (signified) is connected to a specific form (signifier), as it is perceived in traditional semiotics (van Leeuwen 2005; Kress and van Leeuwen 2006). In social semiotics, all modes of communication – whether visual, verbal or auditive – are assumed to have the potential to realize three metafunctions. These are: (1) the ideational metafunction, allowing for the representation of external experiences of the world and internal experiences of human consciousness; (2) the interpersonal metafunction and the establishment and maintenance of social relations and interaction between the participants in communicative acts; and (3) the textual metafunction, providing internal coherence between the text components and external coherence with the context in which the text was produced (2006: 41-44). Every semiotic mode makes use of different resources to realize these metafunctions, and some modes are more equipped with specific resources to express a certain metafunction than others (van Leeuwen 2001; Kress and van Leeuwen 2006). Earlier multimodal analyses of picture book texts performed in e.g. Williams (1998; 1999), Unsworth (2001; 2005) and Unsworth and Ortigas (2008) have, in accordance with Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), taken their point of departure in an analysis of how the three metafunctions are realized through verbal and visual text components in the picture book text. This will also be a starting point for the analysis in this paper where the focus will be on:

1. How pedagogical interaction with the reader is realized interpersonally through verbal and visual forms of direct address and textually through the interplay between the verbal and the visual text components.

© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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2. How child images are constructed on an ideational level by the analysis of how the picture book character Miffy is depicted in the text, i.e. what role she is assigned as participant (agent vs. goal) in verbal processes.

These aspects will be analysed in both ST and TT.

3. Preliminary norms 3.1. Translation policy: co-production and selection

The production of picture books is by and large constrained by economic factors. As discussed by both Dollerup (1999; 2003) and O’Sullivan (2005) an important consequence of the co-production of children’s books is that the market is, to a large extent, internationalized. In many cases originals and translations of picture books are printed and thus spread in several countries at the same time. This is e.g. the case with books by renowned Dutch and Flemish picture book artists such as Max Velthuijs, Dick Bruna and Guido Van Genechten. In these cases, dummies (i.e. sketches of the picture book images either with or without verbal text components) are presented at international book fairs such as the Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which are important market places for picture books (Linders 2003; Dollerup 2003; O’Sullivan 2005). It is subsequently argued by O’Sullivan (2005) that international co-productions give rise to a growing amalgamate culture of picture books designed for the international market, avoiding culture-specific elements and artistic trends in the images. Considering the selection of Dutch picture books translated into Swedish between 1995 and 2006, it becomes clear that the strong artistic trend characterizing the Dutch and especially the Flemish picture book scene since the 1990s has not made its way into the Swedish target culture.3 These artistic picture books, also referred to as ‘aesthetic picture books’, often express a strong intertextual connection with art, literature and graphic design (Vermeulen 2006; Nauwlaerts 2008). Flemish picture book artists such as Carl Cneutt and Sabine Clement often use explicit visual 3

One of the most important publishing houses in Flanders giving impulses to this artistic scene in the 1990’s is De Eenhoorn, led by publisher Bart Desmyter. Soon after this, many other Flemish publishers followed, creating a picture book scene for what has come to be referred to as ‘the aesthetic picture book’ (Vermeulen 2006; Nauwlaerts 2008). Some important representatives are Carll Cneut, Geert De Kockere, Pieter Gaudesaboos, Sabien Clement, Gerda Dendooven, Tom Schamp, Isabella Vandenabeele, Edward van de Vendel, Goele Dewanckel, Erika Cotteleer, Klaas Verplancke and André Sollie. © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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references to paintings by artists such as Bruegel, Picasso, Matisse, Schiele or Miro. While these books have been received successfully in countries like France and Germany and at international book fairs such as the Bologna Book Fair (Vermeulen 2006: 27), they are not translated to Swedish. When interviewed several Swedish publishers stated that they prefer to select picture books with images fitting within Swedish (picture book) traditions and thus having the potential to sell well on the Swedish market.4 The general selection strategy used by the Swedish publishers in selecting Dutch picture books for translation can be described as a combination of foremost commercial and target-oriented norms, concerned primarily with the suitability and acceptability of the images in the target culture. This can be illustrated further by looking at the selection process for the Swedish translations of books by Dutch picture book artist Dick Bruna.5 All the Swedish translations of Bruna’s books are printed in co-productions entirely arranged and initiated by Bruna’s Dutch publisher, Mercis. The Swedish publisher, Ordalaget, then decides if it is interested in participating in the production of a certain title or not. Several titles were turned down by Ordalaget because the imagery presented in the books was considered unsuitable, outdated (many of the originals date from the 1950s and 1960s) or culturally unfamiliar to Swedish children. For example, the setting of the book nijntje aan zee (1963) is a sandy beach with small bathing huts in the shape of small tents. The Swedish publisher considered this beach scenery with the bathing huts, recurring on several pages and depicted on the cover of the book, to be rather old-fashioned and somewhat unfamiliar to modern Swedish children and thus decided not to publish the book. Another example of a title that was turned down is poesje nel (1959), where one of the images shows red-skinned Indians wearing feathers on their heads, dressed in Indian clothes. This was considered to be outdated, politically incorrect and possibly offensive to modern Swedish readers. Although not published in Sweden, both nijntje aan zee and poesje nel were re-issued in Dutch during the 1990s.6

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See APPENDIX 1. The information used in describing this case is based on an interview with the publisher Margot Henrikson. See APPENDIX 1. 6 Although both nijntje aan zee and poesje nel were turned down by Ordalaget, they were both published in Swedish during the 1960’s together with several other picture books by Bruna. A comparison of selected titles from the 1960’s and those published recently reveals some interesting differences. These differences illustrate how socio-cultural factors influencing the selection of translations change over time in a single target culture. It also reflects differences in educational norms regarding what was deemed acceptable in Swedish children’s literature in the 1960’s compared to modern times. See also Van Meerbergen (2008). 5

© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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3.2. Translator’s profile and directness of translation

When looking more specifically at the profiles of the translators translating Dutch picture books into Swedish, it becomes clear that these differ from translators of other Dutch children’s literature. While translators of books for young readers and adolescents most often are trained as professional translators in Dutch, the translators of picture books tend to a higher degree to be publishers, editors or writers of Swedish children’s literature, who often lack training as Dutch translators.7 This raises interesting questions about the praxis of translating picture books. What are the requirements that a translator of picture books must meet and what can those requirements tell us about the norms prevailing in the field of picture book translation? Also at this level there is an economic dimension connected. It costs less for a publishing house to let publishers and editors take on the role of translator rather than having picture books translated by professional translators. At the same time the choice of translators also reflects which expectations there are in the target culture concerning translated picture books; the publishers, editors and writers who act as translators may not be formally trained translators of Dutch, rather they are skilled to edit and write texts aimed specifically at Swedish children. This suggests a strong target-culture-oriented translation strategy. This hypothesis is also supported by the specifications or paratextual references regarding the translation, found in the books. Many of the paratexts in the translated picture books use “Swedish text” rather than “translation” to describe the translated text. When asked about this, some of the publishers stated that they use “Swedish text” when they feel that the translation deviates considerably from the source text while others stated that they use both in a rather inconsistent manner. Even though there is no consistent behaviour in describing the translations of these picture books, there seems to be awareness in the minds of the publishers that some of the translated texts are adapted to a great extent to the target culture. Some of the picture books were translated directly from German or English, as indicated in the paratextual references of the books in question. This was the case with books by two high-status picture book artists, the Flemish artist Lieve Baeten and the Dutch artist Max Velthuijs. Although these were seemingly cases of indirect translations, they proved not 7

In interviews with these translators about the strategies they use when translating picture books, many of them stated that they find the verbal text in picture books to be short, linguistically not too complicated and thus easy to understand, as Dutch and Swedish (both being Germanic languages) are closely related. Often they also have the possibility of consulting English, German or French translations of the same book; in some cases an English version of the written text is provided by the Dutch or Flemish publisher. See APPENDIX 1. © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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to be. Both Baeten and Velthuijs chose leading foreign publishers on the international picture book market, the German house Verlag Friedrich Oetinger and the English publisher Andersen Press, respectively, to distribute the foreign rights of (some of) their books, thus increasing their chances on the international picture book market. This complicates the question of what should be considered the original text and the country of origin. The books by Max Velthuijs, for example, are co-printed in Dutch and English versions at the same time. Velthuijs’ main publisher, Andersen Press, distributes the foreign rights but works closely together with Velthuijs’ Dutch publisher, Leopold.8 In 2004, Velthuijs was awarded the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award and he has received numerous national and international awards for his books throughout his career. He is considered to be one of the leading Dutch picture book artists of the last few decades. Still, after examining the paratextual references found in the Swedish versions of the books, the English title is indicated as the original title and the English publisher is mentioned as the original publisher. Consequently, Max Velthuijs is listed in the Swedish national bibliography as being translated from English and not from Dutch.9 This shows that in a medium like the picture book, where not only words but also images are primary means of expression, the production process is moving towards greater internationalization and concepts such as ‘source text’ and ‘nationality’ can be problematic to deal with. In the case of the picture book, internationalization is e.g. also reflected by the increasing number of picture books created by writers and illustrators co-operating across national borders.

4. Operational norms: Dick Bruna’s Miffy in a multimodal perspective 4.1. Initial remarks This section of the paper focuses on a multimodal analysis performed on one spread from the picture book nijntje in de sneeuw (1963) by the Dutch picture book artist Dick Bruna. The book was translated into Swedish as Miffy i snön (1998). The spread is shown below in 8

The originals were often made in both an English and a Dutch version produced in the same co-production. Velthuijs wrote the words in the Dutch versions himself and was also involved in the production of the words for the English versions. 9 This was also the case with Lieve Baeten, some of whose books were categorised as German translations. The Swedish National Bibliography is integrated as a special database in the online database of the National Library of Sweden: http://libris.kb.se/form_extended.jsp?f=nb (Access 4 January 2008). © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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APPENDIX 2 which includes the visual and verbal text components from both ST and TT, each provided with an English translation by the author of this paper. As can be seen on the spread, Bruna’s picture book texts are characterized by the four-lined rhyme (abcb) in the verbal text component of every spread. As a result of co-production, the translator is presented with a text in which the images are present but must also take into account the constraints provided by rhyme and space.10 The translator thus has to find creative solutions within the linguistic constraints of the target language, taking into account the images as well as rhyme and space. This inevitably leads to changes in the textual relationship between the verbal and the visual text components. As texts are read in different ways by different readers, and we thus never can tell exactly how each reader will respond or react to it, it will be presupposed that these picture book texts address a certain ‘model reader’ (Eco 1979; see also Williams 1998; Björkvall 2007) and invite a certain ‘model reading’ (Nord 2008).11 In the case of picture books like these, which address pre-school children, the model reader is not one person but rather two persons. The first one is the pre-school child; the second one is the adult reading the text aloud to the child. In the case presented in this paper, the model readers of the ST belong to a Dutch source culture, the model readers of the TT to a Swedish target culture. The term ‘model reading’ should then be understood as referring to the way in which the picture book text invites a prototypical way of reading through its specific textual design, i.e. through its usage of different semiotic resources. Before starting with the analysis, some remarks on the Swedish translation are necessary. The book nijntje in de sneeuw (1963) was first translated into Swedish in 1968 but then re-published in a slightly revised version in 1998. Apart from some minor linguistic modernizations, where some outdated words and expressions were replaced by modern equivalents, two substantial changes were made. The changes regard both the name and the gender of the protagonist. The Swedish name was changed from Lilla Kanin (‘little rabbit’) to the English, and nowadays also international, name Miffy according to directives from Bruna’s main publisher, Mercis.12 By reducing the name of the character to a single 10

These restrictions are implied by Bruna’s main publisher. Mercis, in charge of the international co-ordination and production of all of Bruna’s books. Mercis’ policy entails a quality regulation of the translations of Bruna’s books, as they state that “the products must always be comparable to the original picture book in terms of quality and underlying philosophy.” Cited from Mercis’ webpage: http://www.mercis.com/ (Access 8 December 2008). 11 The term ‘model reading’ is proposed by Nord (2008) extending Eco’s description of ‘the model reader’ (Eco, 1979: 7-11). 12 A search in the digital library catalogues of the German national library (Deutsche National Bibliothek) and the French national library (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) shows that both the French name Le Petit Lapin and the German name Nina were changed into Miffy in new translations from the 1980s and onwards. © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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(international) name, Miffy, the products involved in merchandising Miffy (which range from toys to clothes to articles for everyday use) can be distributed in an international and, in this case, even global market, as Miffy has also become a popular figure in Asian countries.13 This shows by other means that economic and commercial aspects can also have a direct influence on the operational translation norms. The other change involves the gender of Miffy, which was changed from female to male in the first Swedish translation from 1968. Miffy thus went from being a girl in the Dutch original to being a boy in this first Swedish translation. It is interesting to note that the gender of Miffy, in this book, is primarily marked in the verbal text component, by the usage of personal pronouns. The images depicting Miffy show her in a rather gender-neutral way. The Swedish gender-change in the first translation did thus not collide with the images. The exact reason for this gender-change remains unclear, but in the later translation from 1998 the gender was changed to female in accordance to the Dutch original. In other books in the Miffy series translated into Swedish during the 1990s, there are more explicit descriptions of Miffy as female, both verbally and visually. In the analysis below, the modern Swedish edition from 1998 will be used.

4.2. Pedagogical interaction

In the analysed spread, direct interaction is created with the reader through the eyes of the protagonist Miffy. Kress and van Leeuwen describe ‘the gaze’ as a central aspect of the interpersonal metafunction establishing interaction between the participants in the communicative act (2006: 116-124). When a participant depicted in the image is looking the viewer directly in the eye, direct contact is established through a vector connecting the participant’s sight line with the viewers’. Consequently, the reader’s full attention is demanded and the reader is invited to return the gaze. This can be considered a central pedagogical feature in most of Bruna’s books and images, where many of the characters (even toy bears) are depicted frontally, meeting the readers’ gaze directly and thus visually addressing them.14 Furthermore, Miffy’s head is rather large compared to the rest of her body, thus demanding more attention than the other elements in the composition. Kress and van

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See Linders (2006) and Vrooland-Lööb (2006) on the merchandising of Bruna and Miffy. See also Linder’s discussion of the psychological effects of the eye contact in Bruna’s books (Linders 2006: 144).

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© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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Leeuwen refer to this as the principle of ‘salience’ (2006: 201-203). Salience, i.e. a hierarchical structure of importance between the elements depicted, can be realized through visual resources such as size, colour or sharpness of focus. The salience of Miffy’s head reinforces the interactive nature of the gaze as Miffy’s head is literally brought closer to the reader than the rest of her body. By bringing objects such as faces closer to the viewer, there is less social distance with the viewer, resulting in greater intimacy with the viewer (2006: 124-129). The interactive force of Miffy’s eyes is furthermore reinforced by the fact that they are placed in a large and relatively empty white space, Miffy’s face, thus gaining salience within the space of her face. In the analysed spread, Miffy’s head is also slightly tilted as if she were curiously watching and waiting for the reader to respond. Comparing the ST and TT in the analysed spread, we see that the interpersonal metafunction expressed visually is reinforced linguistically in the TT by the addition of the Swedish personal pronoun du (‘you’). Thus, more explicit direct and personal contact is established with the reader in the TT, realized both verbally and visually; in contrast, this is realized only visually in the ST. Similar cases of direct address through the use of pronouns occur on several spreads in Bruna’s original texts, so this is not a unique feature of the translations. In the analysed spread, the addition of the pronoun thus seems to function as a compensatory technique, where pronouns are added in some places in the TT because they were left out in other places compared to the ST.15 Looking at the words accompanying the image in the ST, we find that all of the objects named in the verbal text component, apart from the gloves, are pictured in the image: a cap, boots and a scarf. This establishes a relationship of referential explicitness or verbalvisual redundancy, which requires a less active role from the reader as meaning-maker because he or she has no ‘interpretive gaps’ to fill in (Baumgarten 2008; Ortigas and Unsworth 2008). From a pedagogical point of view, the child reader is presented with a picture showing what one should be wearing to go out and play in the snow, accompanied by a verbal instruction including the names of all the objects depicted in the picture. This pedagogical message is reflected in the structure of the verbal text component, which can be seen as an implied condition in lines 1-3, followed by an explicit expression of permission expressed by the Dutch modal auxiliary kon (‘could’ or ‘may’) in line 4. These four lines

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Although some TT’s in Bruna’s picture books show a tendency to use more pronouns than the ST’s, at the present stage, this is still a hypothesis in the study and has yet to be confirmed by a thorough and systematic analysis of the entire material. © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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seem to imply the following: provided that (condition) Miffy puts on her cap, her boots, her scarf and her cloves, she may (permission) go out and play. While the verbal-visual relationship of redundancy is central to the textual design of the ST, this textual structure changes in the TT because of the verbal changes made in the TT. Instead of naming the objects depicted in the image one by one as in the ST, the TT summarizes them under the more general term “warm clothes”. The explicit pedagogical verbal-visual redundancy from the ST is thus replaced by a less specified referential relationship between words and image regarding the naming of the clothes, leaving these ‘gaps’ open for the reader to fill in. Instead, a humorous reference is introduced in the TT as a verbal comment is made on Miffy’s cap showing two ears. This, combined with the addition of the personal pronoun du (‘you’), shifts the focus from pedagogy (ST) to humour that involves the reader personally (TT).

4.3. Child images

The ideational metafunction is often realized through narrative representations, depicting forms of social action and assigning different roles to the participants engaged in these actions (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006: 45-78). Looking at the analysed spread, the depiction of action is mainly realized through the verbal text components in both ST and TT, as the visual depiction of Miffy is a rather static one.16 In the verbal component of the ST, Miffy is depicted as an actor, an active and seemingly conscious performer of the action processes presented in the verbal text component. Miffy is the subject of a number of active verb processes; she is described as putting on the different items of clothing, which she knows is required of her if she wants to go out and play in the snow. Within the textual context of the ST the visual image of Miffy thus stands for a responsible and exemplary child, at the same time implicitly inviting the reader to identify with her actions through the interpersonal function of direct address as discussed in the previous section (see 4.2.). Examining the depiction of Miffy in the TT, we see that she is verbally described as a passive participant not performing actions herself but rather taking the position of a beneficiary. She is not putting her clothes on herself, but she is dressed by someone else: “så får hon varma kläder” (“so she gets warm clothes” – my emphasis) and she is objectified as

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The depiction of visual action is typically realized by so called ‘vectors’, i.e. lines implying movement (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006: 42). A typical visual representation of movement could e.g. be a figure walking which is commonly represented by a spread position of the legs creating a vector from one foot to the other.

© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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she is compared to a package: “och blir som ett paket” (“and becomes like a package” – my emphasis). As a result, the visual image of Miffy in the TT does no longer represent the active child serving as a pedagogical role model that inspires the reader to act responsibly; Miffy is instead depicted as a child who is taken care of. Looking at other spreads in the Swedish translation of this book, a general tendency to tone down Miffy’s exemplary conduct can be noted. 17 For example, her asking for permission to go out and play in the ST, politely saying goodbye to her parents and promising them to be careful, is replaced in the TT by a phrase in which she simply expresses that she wants to go out and play. The TT thus introduces the image of a more liberated child, choosing its actions from its own perspective rather than a child wanting to fulfil adult expectations as in the ST. This shows that, although the image of Miffy is physically the same in ST and TT due to the process of co-production, the semiotic content of this image changes when the image is placed into a new textual and socio-cultural context.

5. Conclusion and further questions

In analyzing the translation of picture books, it becomes clear that both the possibility of coproductions and the acceptability of images in the target culture play a substantial role in the selection of picture books to be translated. Although co-productions, as argued by e.g. O’Sullivan (2005) and as also shown by the analysis of preliminary translation norms in this article, leads to a greater internationalization of the picture book and an avoidance of artistic and culture-specific elements in the images, this does not entail that the actual translation of the picture book text can be characterized as such, as shown by the multimodal analyses carried out in this paper. It has been argued by e.g. Barber (1996) and Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), that the growing cultural globalization is met by a growing regionalization as smaller population groups feel the need to enforce their own cultural identity within the global perspective. This certainly applies to the translation of picture books, characterized by both forces of internationalization and of regionalization. In considering the selection strategies of Swedish publishers in choosing Dutch picture books, it becomes clear that they primarily select books with images fitting their own socio-

17

This strategy of toning down the explicit didactic nature of the text was confirmed by the translator-publisher of the books, who stated that she found the original texts to be too explicitly didactic in tone for a modern Swedish target group. © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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cultural norms; i.e. Dutch source texts with culture-neutral or international images. This raises the question of whether the norms regulating the images in these picture books can actually be considered to belong to a source or target culture or whether they instead must be seen as belonging to an international culture. If so, the descriptive model proposed by Toury (1995), based on the assumption that the translation is to be placed on a continuum between norms prevailing in the source and target culture, should be complemented by a third cultural sphere: an international culture entailing international norms. In the case of the picture book, these international norms seem to be primarily connected to economic aspects relating to production costs (co-printing) or commercial interests such as selling figures and merchandising. Not only can images be played down to meet international norms: even the words in translated picture books can be regulated by international norms, as was the case with the name of the character Miffy in the Swedish translations. Due to the process of co-production, the translator of a picture book is presented with a picture book text consisting only of visual text components, leaving gaps for the words to be filled in. In order to be able to analyse how the semiotic interplay between words and images and the semiotic content of images changes in the translated text, a multimodal analysis based on Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) was introduced. This analysis led to the conclusion that ST and TT deviate in their way of creating social and pedagogical interaction with the reader due to the changing relationship between words and images. The ST and TT also present a different image of the child, giving a different semiotic content to the visual representation of the character Miffy. The ST is characterized by an explicit referential interplay between words and images, where the verbal-visual redundancy together with the depiction of Miffy as the exemplary, responsible child sends out an explicit didactic message to the reader, inviting the reader to identify with Miffy and follow her actions. The referential interplay between words and images is established in another way in the TT, resulting in the toning down of the didactic message by introducing humorous verbal-visual interplay in the text. In the ST, Miffy is no longer portrayed as the exemplary, responsible child but is more objectified in her role as a child and, therefore, liberated from her responsibilities. These results raise further questions as to how the patterns in the TT can be related to socio-cultural factors in the target culture and to a different view of the functions of children’s literature in the target culture compared to the source culture. Is Dutch children’s literature more explicit in its didactics than Swedish children’s literature, where didactics are combined with humour? And can this be related to a different image of the child in the two cultures? Is the Swedish child view more liberated than the Dutch and how is this reflected in children’s © 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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literature? These questions can obviously not be answered without more data and without a thorough study of both the Dutch and the Swedish literary and cultural traditions. In the case of the picture book text analyzed in this paper, it is also important to consider that the Dutch text dates from 1963 and thus belongs to another socio-cultural context than Dutch picture book texts produced today – although this book is still published and read in the Dutchspeaking culture today. This also counts for the Swedish translation from 1998 which, despite some changes, is by and large based on the first translation from 1967. A more thorough study taking into consideration all these factors is thus needed. Another question to consider is whether, and if so to what extent, the translation of picture books is influenced by specific techniques used by translators in translating multimodal texts where the visual material is already present. In the example analyzed in this paper, it is easy to imagine that a translator provided with specific images and specific restrictions such as rhyme and space uses the technique of referring to the image as a point of departure for the translation rather than fully adhering to the source text. This could also be compared to translation techniques used in the translation of other multimodal texts such as film texts and advertising texts. Although that is not the case in the example presented here, in other translated picture book texts by Bruna that are part of the larger study that includes this paper, several of the translated texts show signs of explicitation in the relationship between words and images, which also proved to be the case in translated film texts analyzed by Baumgarten (2008). In other words, in order to answer these questions, more studies of the translation of multimodal texts that integrate a multimodal analysis are required.

References

Primary literature

Bruna, Dick. 1959. poesje nel, Utrecht: Bruna. Bruna, Dick. 1963. nijntje in de sneeuw, Utrecht: Bruna. Bruna, Dick. 1963. nijntje aan zee, Utrecht: Bruna. Bruna, Dick. 1968. Lilla Kanin i snön. Stockholm: Svensk Läraretidnings Förlag. Bruna, Dick. 1998. Miffy i snön. Bromma: Ordalaget.

© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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Secondary literature

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Van Leeuwen, Theo. 2005. Introducing Social Semiotics. London and New York: Routledge. Van Meerbergen, Sara. 2008. “De invloed van het aspect ‘beeld’ op de culturele overdracht. Nederlandstalige kinder- en jeugdliteratuur in zweden tussen 1995 en 2006”. Literatuur Zonder Leeftijd 22 (75): 75-88. Vermeulen, Marita. 2006. Colouring Outside the Lines: Flemish illustrators making their marks. Berchem: Flemish Literature Fund. Vrooland-Löb, Truusje. 2006. “‘Wat ik leuk vind nu ik ouder ben, is het idée dat je iets dóórgeeft’”. In Dick Bruna, Joke Linders (ed). Amsterdam: Mercis. 467-525. Williams, Geoffrey. 1998. “Children entering literate worlds. Perspectives from the study of textual practices”. In Literacy and schooling, Frances Christie and Ray Misson (eds.). London: Routledge. 18-46. Williams, Geoffrey. 1999. “Children Becoming Readers. Reading and Literacy”. In Understanding Children’s Literature, Peter Hunt (ed.) London: Routledge. 151-162.

About the author

Sara Van Meerbergen graduated in Germanic Languages, with a Major in Scandinavian Languages, in 2003 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Ghent. She did postgraduate studies in Publishing Studies and Translation Studies at Stockholm University. Currently she is working on a PhD on the Translation of Dutch Picture Books in Swedish, at the Dutch Department of Stockholm University where she also teaches courses in translation, Dutch children’s literature and linguistics. Her research interests include children’s literature, picture books, translation studies and multimodal studies. Address: E-mail:

Dutch Department, Department of Nordic Languages, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden [email protected]

© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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APPENDIX 1 - Swedish editors and publishers interviewed about their translation policy of Dutch picture books

Augustsson, Marie. Publisher at Rabén & Sjögren. Interviewed on 26 February 2007. Bogaeus, Anna. Publisher at Alfabeta. Interviewed on 5 February 2007. Forsberg, Stellan. Editor at Sjöstrands Förlag. Interviewed on 25 February 2008. Henrikson, Margot. Publisher at Ordalaget. Interviewed on 21 February 2008. Johansson, Erik. Publisher at Berghs Förlag. Interviewed on 9 March 2007. Lyssarides, Lotta. Editor at Natur & Kultur. Interviewed on 23 February 2007. Rosenqvist, Anna. Editor at Opal. Interviewed on 1 March 2007. Vidén, Eva. Editor at Berghs Förlag. Interviewed on 9 March 2007.

© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

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APPENDIX 2 1. ST-spread (Dutch) nijntje in de sneeuw (1963) nijn zette vlug haar mutsje op en trok haar laarzen aan haar das, haar wanten, klaar was nijn zij kon naar buiten gaan

English translation18 nijn put quickly on her little cap and put her boots on her scarf, her gloves, ready was nijn she could go out Copyright Mercis bv, 1963

2. TT-spread (Swedish) Miffy i snön (1998) Så får hon varma kläder och blir som ett paket. Mössan har två strutar för öronen, du vet.

English translation TT So she gets warm clothes and becomes like a package Her cap has two cones for her ears, you know. Copyright Mercis bv, 1963 . In both the ST and the TT, the verbal text components are placed on the left page of the spread while the visual text component is placed on the right page of the spread.

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The English translations were made for the purpose of this paper, by the author of this paper.

© 2009. Dries DE CROM (ed.). Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html