Translations Illustrated

Authors

RAMBOUSEK Jiří

Year of publication 2016
Type Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Description The paper deals with the relations between illustrations and text in books for children written in English and in their Czech translations and adaptations. Changes in the use of illustrations occurring in different editions of a book reveal the views of the function of pictures held by their editors/publishers, and these may be more pronounced when the work is transferred to a different context. The original pictures may be taken over, left out, or replaced with newly commissioned illustrations. A more detailed look shows more refined categories; examples of specific instances will come, among others, from the works by Harriet M. Bennett, Wilhelm Busch, and Lewis Carroll. As a special case in point, instances where the text explicitly refers to a picture will be discussed. While sometimes these references are duly noted and dealt with (e.g., the description of a table in Alice in Wonderland is changed to fit the new picture), very often they are neglected, with consequences for the consistency of the whole. The paper discusses possible reasons behind the publishers’ decisions: economy, shifts in target group, and failure to understand the role of illustrations in a particular text may all play their role.
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