TranslatoLogica: A Journal of Translation, Language, and Literature, 1 (2017), p. 157-171 Kamilia Ziganshina Kazan Federal University The Mechanism of Intersemiotic Translation of the Aida Opera Libretto into a Comic Strip ABSTRACT This paper presents the process of translating the verbal opera libretto into a comic strip. The source text is the opera “Aida” composed by Giuseppe Verdi in the second half of the 19th century, while the target text is the opera comic strip “Aida” that was created by William Elliot and published online in 2015 1 . The creation of a comic strip or the translation of another type of work into such a medium fulfils two functions in culture: educational (introducing a new text) and entertaining (giving a new point of view on an already familiar text). In addition to bringing a new audience to the text through translation, it also contributes to the preservation of a significant, culturally active text. The analysis presented in this paper is based on translational mechanisms worked out by D. Delabastita (1993), who distinguishes between five main transformational categories: substitution, repetition, deletion, addition, and permutation; categories that function on the levels of linguistic, textual and cultural code. Moreover, this analysis builds upon the perspective of metatextual relations between source and target texts offered by P. Torop (1995) and A. Popovič (1976), which present an alternative to the conventional source/target text analysis. KEY WORDS Intersemiotic translation, comic strip, opera libretto, culture core, popular culture, prototext, metatext 1. Theoretical background The analysis presented in this paper is based on notions that stand at the intersection of cultural semiotics (Roman Jakobson (1971), Jury Lotman (1976, 1990, 2005), Peeter Torop (1995) and semiotics of translation (Anton Popovič (1976), Dirk Delabastita (1993) and was carried out on two levels. The first comprises the characteristics of the relations between a prototext (the opera libretto) and a metatext (the comic strip) and the description of the 1 Source: www.sinfinimusic.com, October 5, 2015
16
Embed
The Mechanism of Intersemiotic Translation of the Aida ... · PDF fileThe Mechanism of Intersemiotic Translation of the “Aida” Opera Libretto Into A Comic Strip 159 (1993) describes
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
TranslatoLogica: A Journal of Translation, Language, and Literature, 1 (2017), p. 157-171
Kamilia Ziganshina Kazan Federal University
The Mechanism of Intersemiotic Translation of the Aida Opera Libretto into a Comic Strip
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the process of translating the verbal opera libretto into a comic strip. The source text is the opera “Aida” composed by Giuseppe Verdi in the second half of the 19th century, while the target text is the opera comic strip “Aida” that was created by William Elliot and published online in 20151. The creation of a comic strip or the translation of another type of work into such a medium fulfils two functions in culture: educational (introducing a new text) and entertaining (giving a new point of view on an already familiar text). In addition to bringing a new audience to the text through translation, it also contributes to the preservation of a significant, culturally active text. The analysis presented in this paper is based on translational mechanisms worked out by D. Delabastita (1993), who distinguishes between five main transformational categories: substitution, repetition, deletion, addition, and permutation; categories that function on the levels of linguistic, textual and cultural code. Moreover, this analysis builds upon the perspective of metatextual relations between source and target texts offered by P. Torop (1995) and A. Popovič (1976), which present an alternative to the conventional source/target text analysis.
KEY WORDS
Intersemiotic translation, comic strip, opera libretto, culture core, popular culture,
prototext, metatext
1. Theoretical background
The analysis presented in this paper is based on notions that stand at the intersection of
cultural semiotics (Roman Jakobson (1971), Jury Lotman (1976, 1990, 2005), Peeter Torop
(1995) and semiotics of translation (Anton Popovič (1976), Dirk Delabastita (1993) and was
carried out on two levels. The first comprises the characteristics of the relations between a
prototext (the opera libretto) and a metatext (the comic strip) and the description of the
1 Source: www.sinfinimusic.com, October 5, 2015
The Mechanism of Intersemiotic Translation of the “Aida” Opera Libretto Into A Comic Strip
158
intersemiotic translation mechanisms. The second includes a description of intersemiotic
translation as a way of text preservation and text distribution in culture. This paper adopts a
broad view of translation as the process of meaning transfer from one sign system into
another sign system or from one medium into another medium. Dirk Delabastita (1993, p. 1)
defines the process of translation “as a triple recoding process (on the linguistic, cultural,
and textual-rhetorical planes), which requires making choices both because the source and
target codes are asymmetric, and because texts tend to be complexly organized.”
According to Popovič (1976, p. 232), the relations between source text and target text are
equal to those between prototext and metatext, which are defined through a number of
crucial features such as “the scope of linking” and “the way of linking a text to a text”. By
scope of linking, Popovič (1976, p. 232) means whether the whole text or only its levels
(elements) are translated. Methods for linking texts may be affirmative (the attitude of the
translators is positive towards the prototext and they do not include any additional negative
connotation in the translation) or controversial (the translators' attitude towards the
prototext is somehow negative or ironic). Text links may be transparent (when origins of the
prototext – the author and the title – are stated in the metatext) or opaque (the author and
the original title are not mentioned in the translation). However, with the development of
new media and the increasing number of intersemiotic translation cases we can assume that
it is possible to introduce of a four-element classification on the basis of the scope of linking,
which comprises a) elements of the text, b) a whole text, c) a summary of the whole and d)
an inverted whole. The fourth type – the inverted whole – presupposes the structural
differences in the metatext when the sequence of the text elements is altered.
Peeter Torop (1995) in his book “Total Translation” describes the primary methods of
translation processes: textual, metatextual, in- and intertextual, and extratextual (p. 13-14).
If we consider translation type classifications worked out by Torop (1995), we notice the
difference from the above-mentioned scheme suggested by Popovič (1976). In Torop’s
(1995) classification, metatextual translation is considered as only one type of four.
Traditionally, literary translation is not defined as metatextual but constitutes its own group
of textual translation, and the application of this classification may lead to ambiguity. Torop
(1995) seems to base his theory on the ideas expressed by Popovič (1976), however he
modifies them by asserting that the prototext can undergo the following transformations in
the metatext: imitation, selection, reduction, and complementation (p. 112). Delabastita
The Mechanism of Intersemiotic Translation of the “Aida” Opera Libretto Into A Comic Strip
159
(1993) describes methods of text translation as transfer from one sign system into another
and uses conventional terminology in his works, traditional for translational studies i.e.
referring to source and target texts (p. 39). In this paper, however, the analysis combines
two theories that have different notions for the same ideas – the source text / prototext and
the target text / metatext. In order to avoid any possible terminological ambiguities, the
prototext / metatext dichotomy will be applied. The translation process functions on three
levels: translation of linguistic code, cultural code, and textual code. By linguistic code,
Delabastita (1993) refers to the way, in which a verbal text is transferred into a target sign
system. A cultural code functions on the level of secondary modelling of system codes. A
textual code reveals the way, in which generic features of narrative are translated into the
target sign system. Delabastita (1993) introduces also five translational operations:
substitution, repetition, deletion, addition, and permutation. During substitution, an item in
the prototext is replaced by another item in the metatext. Repetition is an operation, in
which a prototext element is simply repeated in the metatext. Deletion is an operation
during which one or several items are omitted. The situation when an element or elements
are added to the metatext in translation is called addition. Permutation, on the other hand,
may be explained as metatextual compensation of prototext elements in the metatext.
Further analysis combines the ideas of Popovič (1976), Torop (1995) and Delabastita
(1993), as described above. The first part is dedicated to a general description of the ways
the libretto and the comic strip are connected and presents an analysis of the prototext-
metatext relations through the theory of Popovič (1976) and the more detailed theory
created by Torop (1995). In addition, the new four-element prototext and metatext
connection classification was applied. The second part of the analysis builds upon the ideas
of Delabastita (1993) and depicts the translation on three different code levels. The final part
of the article examines the influence of intersemiotic translation on the place that this text
occupies in the cultural space.
2. Analysis
2.1. General description of the prototext and the metatext
The libretto of the opera “Aida” by Giuseppe Verdi was written by Antonio Ghislanzoni,
following the scenario of the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette or the Italian opera
The Mechanism of Intersemiotic Translation of the “Aida” Opera Libretto Into A Comic Strip
160
composer and librettist Temistocle Solera.2 Structurally the libretto bears similarities to the
drama genre and consists of such core elements as dialogues of main characters in the form
of verses, playwright remarks, and stage directions. The libretto begins traditionally with the
enumeration of all characters and types of singer voices performing the roles. Despite the
fact that the libretto was originally written in Italian, the analysis of the translation process is
based on the previous English translation. The exact date of the Italian libretto translation
into English is not stated; however, since historicity and elevated style were preserved it is
possible to disregard this lapse between the creation of the Italian and English texts.
The opera comic strip “Aida” created by William Elliot was published online on the 5th
October 2015.3 This comic strip is a combination of verbal (inscriptions, words of the
narrator) and visual (drawings) elements. The whole spatial composition corresponds to
traditional comic book structure, including static picture “shots” represented angularly
(broken into geometrical figures). The picture composition is structured vertically. Different
variants of picture composition are possible on one line: only one picture, two pictures of
the same size, three pictures (one big picture on the left and two small ones on the right),
and three horizontally situated pictures on one level.
In the case of the opera comic strip we are dealing with a text that entered the target
culture some time ago – this fact is proven by the existing English translations. According to
Roman Jakobson’s classification (1971) there are three types of translation: intralingual,
interlingual, and intersemiotic also called transmutation (p. 261). Intralingual translation can
be described as interpretation or rephrasing of a given linguistic material using the sign
systems of the same language; interlingual, i.e. the traditional understanding of translation,
is the expression of some idea in a different language using another sign system.
Intersemiotic translation is the process of interpreting one sign system with the help of
another sign system. In the temporal dimension, we observe the primary appearance of the
interlingual translation (the text in the Italian is translated into English with the maximal
possible preservation of target text structure and form) and secondary intersemiotic
translation that is based on the existing English text. If Torop’s (1995) prototext-metatext
relations are considered, the comic strip presents a shortened version of the libretto: most
details of the prototext are eliminated and only the core plot line is retained.