2.5. The Functional Approach in Translating Webcomics
2.5.3. Nord's Synthesis of Functionalist Theory
tied to authorial intent; in general, webcomics tend to be more closely connected to the author than other types of works, as the publishing of the webcomic often solely comes from an individual person: “The webcomic (. . .) has the potential for greater involvement by people who are not
‘mainstream’” (Hicks, 2009). However, as Hicks (2009) also notes in her article, webcomic creators have to take on all tasks that are usually delegated to editors, publisher’s, PR specialists, and so on, something that Kleefeld (2020, p. 49) also draws attention to regarding technology. The publishing and editing process associated with printed media is usually non-existent when it comes to webcomics; this is in part conditioned by the instantaneous nature of Internet publishing, but also regulated by the notion that a webcomic should be niche and independent, and not related to a corporation. As such, be it for the better or for the worse, a webcomic creator is intrinsically connected to their creation, and this is a notion that must be taken into account during the translation process.
(1988/2005) puts it, “documentary translations (. . .) serve as a document of an [sic] SC [source culture] communication between the author and the ST receiver (p. 80). Therefore, in Nord’s (1988/2005) understanding, a literal or a word-for-word translation would belong to this category;
she also ascribes literary, philological and “exoticizing” translation to documentary translation (p.
80). “The term “exoticizing” could be understood as Venuti’s “foreignizing” translation, where certain source culture-specific terms and phrases are either left in the TT unchanged or translated in such a way so as to preserve the foreignness of the text, or the local colour as Nord calls it. If one was to give an example on the basis of webcomics, a documentary translation would be one that preserves all role-playing game (RPG) and fantasy jargon present in Order of the Stick (2003-current), regardless if the terms are not present or are formed very differently in the TT.
Interestingly, Nord (1988/2005) notes that the translator can focus on any features they wish, e.g.
choosing syntax over vocabulary if it meant portraying the ST better in the TT (p. 80).
On the other hand, Nord describes instrumental translation as “an independent message-transmitting instrument in a new communicative action in TC [target culture]” (p. 81). Unlike documentary translation, an instrumental translation aims for the recipient to not be aware that the translated text was used “in a different communicative action” (p. 81). Again, one can’t help think of Venuti’s domestication; the making of a source text friendlier for a target readership. Nord (1988/2005) further divides instrumental translation into three functional categories: equifunctional, heterofunctional and homologous (p. 81). An equifunctional translation is one where the translation has the same function as the TT, while a heterofunctional one is merely compatible with the ST’s function; this is in the case where the function of a given ST cannot be exactly reproduced.
Homologous translation Nord sees as producing a similar effect while making substantial, but not function-interfering changes, like in poetry translation. In order to apply this notion to webcomic translation, an instrumental translation would be for example, an equifunctional rendering of Kate Beaton’s historical and literary strips from her webcomic series Hark! A Vagrant (2007-2018); if a translation were to preserve their humorous function, the translator would have to make sure to e.g.
translate classic literary phrases from Alice in Wonderland, which Beaton makes light of, in such a way that the target reader’s would understand the reference. If one were to translate the selected strips referring to Alice in Wonderland into Polish, naturally, referring to Słomczyński’s classic Polish translation of the book would be recommended in order to create an equifunctional translation.
As Munday (2016) points out, “Nord’s Text Analysis in Translation is aimed primarily at providing translation students with a model of ST analysis which is applicable to all text types and translation situations” (p. 131). Nord emphasizes functionality, but at the same time focuses on the ST and its function and features. Thus, importance is placed on the source culture and context, and even if there is an instance during which the source has to be overshadowed in order for the TT to
be coherent and functional, Nord’s model ensures that it is at least compatible, not going against or
“offend[ing] the sender’s intention” (Nord, 1988/2005, p. 81). At the same time, Nord further develops a complex and lengthy model detailing a number of extratextual factors along with intratextual features that can be found in the ST, and applies them to a potential TT. It wasn’t until her book, Translating as a Purposeful Activity (1997a) that Nord upgraded her model, making it more flexible and also more relatable e.g. for translator training. A notable aspect that she develops is the concept of the translation brief, along with the importance of a thorough ST analysis and the establishing of a hierarchy of translation problems.
The translation brief serves to compare the profiles of the ST with the TT before undertaking an analysis and deciding upon the correct translation strategy and process. It is also meant as a guide for the translator, who thanks to the brief may notice any points that diverge between the ST and the TT, and which aspects could cause issues when translating. Such issues undeniably appear, as “the situation in which the source text fulfills its functions is, by definition, different from that of the target text” (Nord, 1997a, p. 59). As such, Nord (1997a) justifies the existence of the brief in the following way: “we clearly cannot pretend that a given source text contains all the instructions about how it should be translated (. . .) every translation task should thus be accompanied by a brief that defines the conditions under which the target text should carry out its particular function” (p.
59). Nord (1997a) also points out the usefulness of a translation brief for translators in training (p.
59). Nord (1997a) gives a scope of what a translation brief should entail, including the following categories: “the intended text functions, the target-text addressees, the prospective time and place of reception, the medium over which the text will be transmitted, and the motive for the production or reception of the text” (p. 60). On the example of a brochure, Nord (1997a) demonstrates how a translation brief can be successfully applied (pp. 61-62). In order to apply this concept to webcomic translation, I’ve applied her model to the aforementioned webcomic, DOGS (2015):
• Intended function- three main functions can be noted: informative, expressive and appellative: informative due to the webcomic informing about a not well-known social issues pertaining to Canada’s indigenous people, expressive because of its illustrations and graphic design, and lastly appellative due to the webcomic indirectly invoking empathy in its potential recipients, in part because of the afterword.
• Addressees- website visitors, avid readers of the publishing website; due to the social justice nature of the website, one could assume that the recipients would be of younger age, ranging from teens to young adults, although this could not be entirely true. However, it is important to note that Ad Astra Comix created a poster version of the webcomic which is intended to be hung up in classrooms. Therefore, the pool of recipients grows to children and teenagers presiding in classrooms and educational institutions.
• Time and place of reception: time can by any, and the place is primarily the Ad Astra Comix website, along with any classrooms in which the poster version of the webcomic is hung up.
• Medium: online comic medium (or print copy if in poster form), containing colorful imagetext that is intertwined with each other; without the pictures or text the webcomic would be rendered incomprehensible.
• Motive: Highlighting a lesser known social issue in Canada
Such a brief immediately allows a potential translator to draw up the basic map of the potential translation of the webcomic. Based on the brief, it can be noticed that it’s important for the translator to pay attention to the comic medium and the place, which is predominately online, but can also be in hard copy, offline. The comic medium is especially important, because a potential translation would need to fit the text within speech bubbles. Furthermore, the translator needs to take note of the target audience’s presuppositions, or lack of them thereof- most will not know about the tragedy, and thus, the translation should be as explanatory and coherent as possible. This would include translating e.g. acronyms of government institutions and organization, such as the RCMP. Here, the usefulness of Nord’s brief especially shows through how there is a place to include medium, place and time- something highly defining for online works of any kind.
While Nord’s concept of the translation brief itself is already a comprehensive model, Nord further delves into the role of the ST analysis, along with a detailed list of intratextual factors meant to facilitate such an analysis. The ST analysis is meant to be conducted after the comparison of the ST and TT profiles; the analysis of the ST is meant to help in deciding on the “feasibility of the translation assignment, which source-text units are relevant to a functional translation, and which translation strategy will lead to a target text meeting the requirements of the translation brief”
(Nord, 1997a, p. 62).
Nord mentions that a variety of text-linguistic models can be used, but as she points out, what is especially important is: “that [the text-linguistic models] include a pragmatic analysis of the communicative situations involved and that the same model be used for both the source text and the translation brief, thus making the results comparable” (pp. 62-67). Nord (1997a) further demonstrates ST analysis on the basis of her brochure (pp. 62-67), and also presents (1988/2005) a list of eight intratextual factors for her sender-oriented approach, which she mentions as most effective when analyzed in the given order: “subject matter, content, presuppositions, composition, non-verbal elements, lexis, sentence structure, and suprasegmental features” (p. 89). Nord (1988/2005) describes them in greater detail over the span of her book (pp. 87-142), noting that not every aspect has to be focused on in the aforementioned order, and not every factor has to be taken into account if the text is conventional and transparent in its aspects (pp. 89-90).
Nord’s text-analysis models are ones that can be expected to occur when analyzing a
translation. Noteworthy here is the presupposition factor, which denotes background knowledge and any culture-specific knowledge that could have an impact on making any translation decisions. The suprasegmental features Nord mentions are also interesting; Nord (1988/2005) interprets suprasegmental features as making up the general tone of the text, which “serves to highlight or focus certain parts of the text and to push others into the background” (p. 89). Nord here distinguishes a variety of suprasegmental features, ranging from using italics or bold lettering, to rhythm, intonation and stress. The remainder of factors are self-explanatory, Nord presenting them as a possible, basic option when analyzing the text. However, the presence of such factors allows for the translator to undertake a detailed study of an ST, thus bringing to light potential queries and issues before even beginning a translation.
This is especially helpful when dealing with such SIT’s like webcomics; many require very specific presuppositions from their recipients, and are supported by a great number of paratextual and technological elements. As such, the translation of many webcomics may simply not be feasible for one reason or another. While a webcomic like DOGS (2015) can be seen as feasible for translation, Randall Munroe’s webcomic strip “Time” (2013) from the webcomic series xkcd (2006-current) would be seen as unfeasible. This is because Munroe’s famous webcomic strip was automatically uploaded frame by frame over a period of time in the Spring months of 2013, essentially making the strip an animated one (Explain xkcd, “1190: Time”, 2019). Furthermore,
“Time” (2013) was embedded on the official xkcd (2006-current) website, putting it in a very specific place that would be hard to duplicate for a translation, unlike the DOGS (2015) webcomic which is short, “stationary” (not animated) and easy to adapt into printed form. Simply based on superficial observation, without even thoroughly analyzing “Time” (2013) or creating a translation brief, it can be deduced that the form is the most relevant SIT item, which takes precedence over e.g. the content itself. Therefore, a translation of “Time” (2013) as an animated imagetext would basically have to duplicate the conditions under which the strip was created, combined with the translation of the sparse dialogue over the span of the strip.
Nord’s ST analysis can be further accompanied by her functional hierarchy of translation problems, which aims to help place importance on chosen translation problems that may be more pressing for a given translation. For instance, Nord (1988/2005) notes that “pragmatic errors can be considered to be more serious than linguistic errors” (p. 189), due to the fact that extratextual factors dictate much about the text itself, and that a recipient would sooner be bothered by a pragmatic error than a small linguistic one, such as a misspelling. In a footnote on the hierarchy of relevance and how a teacher could potentially grade a student translation, Nord (1988/2005) assigns three points to pragmatic problems, two to convention-related problems, and only one point to linguistic problems p. 189). Thus, Nord (1988/2005) considers pragmatic errors as most important, and notes that extratextual factors are more important than intratextual factors (p. 189). Still, Nord
does not present this hierarchy as the only one possible; every hierarchy depends on the text itself.
Furthermore, “the hierarchy of extratextual factors depends on the text function required by the translation brief” (Nord, 1988/2005, p. 189), similarly to intratextual factors. Therefore, the outcome of the translation is dependent on the ST, its designated function, and the translator.
Munday (2016) summarizes Nord’s hierarchy of translation problems in the following way:
(1) Function comparison between the ST and the potential TT in order to decide what type of translation is best- instrumental or documentary
(2) Translation brief analysis, which will allow the translator to judge which functional qualities can be reproduced in the TT, and which will have to change or be adapted to suit the target audience, culture and circumstances
(3) Deciding on translation style, i.e. if it should be more focused on the source, or if it should be oriented towards the target. The previously established translation type can be helpful in making this decision
(4) After ‘tackling’ the bigger categories, the translator can move on to lower levels, such as the extratextual and intratextual factors. (pp. 133-134)
Munday (2016) notes that Nord’s translation approach brings together parts of functional translation theory whilst expanding upon it in a practical way, including through the incorporation of a more expansive text-analysis model (p. 133-137). As such, Nord’s approach completes the functional possibilities of approaching webcomic translation.
As will be demonstrated by the case studies, each webcomic can benefit from every approach mentioned in this subchapter. As highly dynamic and non-printed works, the hierarchy of translational aspects shifts with each example; one could assume that it is the form and medium that most attention must be paid to. As David Malki (2015), author of the humorous webcomic Wondermark (2003-2021) says, “A webcomic is less about a comic and more about an entertainment website philosophy” (qtd. in Dale, 2015b, n.p.). Yet Malki’s opinion, while justified, is not always the regular case. While the way webcomics are presented online and the way they function in their environment is crucial in making translation decisions, it is often their content that can present just as big of a challenge. As was seen with Qahera (2013-current), serious linguistic problems can occur that take precedence over form; Qahera (2013-current) is a webcomic published in the standard comic format (roughly 26 by 17 cm) and easy to be both translated and sent to printing should the need to do so arise. However, as the author herself emphasized, the biggest translation problems came from the lack of vocabulary for specific terms in the target language.
Webcomics are a diverse category, not just based on their form, but also their content; an ideal translation approach would be able to adjust to that. As Reber (2019) points out in her article on approaching webcomic reading: “There are many, many kinds of webcomics, from iconic
gag-a-day posts to surrealistic GIF-laden epics to beautifully illustrated indie passion projects” (n.p.). A reader has a tough choice to make, but so does a translator; the implementation of functional translation theories can help make the right choices, based on a variety of factors that are deemed most important for specific works. For instance, xkcd’s (2006-current) regular comic strips would not be much of a challenge or an issue to translate if one was judging them based on form; aside from the unusual “Time” (2013), xkcd (2006-current) is made up of primarily black and white strips, and is published on a creative commons license. This means it would not be an issue to either input the translation into a given panel, nor would there be any big legal obstacles in publishing a translation on a dedicated website. In fact, this is something that has already occurred, with, for e.g.
the Spanish and Russian translations of xkcd (2006-current) hosted on mirror websites in the target language.57 However, if one were to look at Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant (2007-2018), the webcomic has been already published in printed form and featured in syndicated newspapers. Here, the issues of publishing a translation would be an issue, but once again, not the form- Hark! A Vagrant (2007-2018) is solely composed of black and white comic strips.
The aforementioned issues of form and publication rights are merely some of many factors that can be taken into account when translating a webcomic. Nord’s detailed approach makes room for a more complex translation analysis.
57 Both websites can be found under the following addresses: https://es.xkcd.com/ and https://xkcd.ru/1531/