Skopos Theory

as in most webcomics, place of publication, the receiver and the sender have an important impact on the imagetext; in the case of DOGS (2015), it would be advisable that the translator renders the afterword into the target language, which fully sheds light on the issue.

Therefore, Reiss’ text type model can be a helpful initial approach to webcomics, which as independent works are highly motivated by external factors and purposes. Furthermore, it can be a successful lead-in to the applications of other functional translation theories and approaches that could further aid the translator in the process of their decision-making, especially in the context of longer webcomics.

the resulting translated text>, as a particular variety of target text. (p. 221)

Two things are worth noting here, especially in the context of webcomic translation; first, Vermeer points out that the target text does not necessarily need to be a verbal one, allowing for the possibility of multimodal works-something webcomic translation cannot do without. Second, Vermeer uses the term translatum; as mentioned before, the term “target text” poses problems for webcomics translation, as it implies that the target text is indeed just that-a text. The term translatum removes this issue, but stays true to its core meaning-that is, it designates a chosen piece of information in the target culture and TL that in turn is based on a chosen source culture and SL.

As can be noticed, one of the problems with skopos theory, similar to that of Reiss’ text-types, is the fact that it may seem that only one purpose is to be attributed to a translatum. Vermeer (1981/2004) however clarifies this misconception, introducing the idea of sub-skopoi and stating that “The skopos concept can also be used with respect to segments of a translatum, where this appears reasonable or necessary. This allows us to state that an action, and hence a text, need not be considered an indivisible whole” (p. 222). This certainly allows for a wider understanding of the term skopos, and allows for a degree of flexibility. Bringing up the previous example of the webcomic DOGS (2015), here the skopos could be applied to select segments, or parts of the text (1994/2004, p. 222) as Vermeer understands. For example, the translation of the webcomic itself would serve primarily an informative purpose, but the afterword would certainly be more dedicated to appealing to the reader’s emotions, hopefully inspiring them to act in a positive way.

Vermeer further establishes three categories meant to help the translator establish the field to which the purpose may apply. He (1981/2004) refers to these fields as “senses”, namely: the translation process, the translation result, and the translation mode (p. 224). Vermeer (1981/2004) notes that the translation process is related to the goal of the process itself, while the result is connected to the function of the translatum; the translation mode is connected to the intention of the mode (p. 224). This distinction is useful, as it places an emphasis on the fact that a skopos can be attributed to the numerous facets of translation strategies, procedures and processes. Vermeer (1981/2004) especially brings this up due to the following: one might object that if there is no obvious aim to a translation- especially in regards to literature- there is no action, and skopos theory is a functional, action-based translation theory (p. 224). However, Vermeer (1981/2004) rightfully points out that even in the process of creating literature or aesthetic works an author has different goals and kinds of motivation, even if they are “such base desires as fame and money” (p. 225).

This distinction especially proves helpful in webcomic translation; the creation of many webcomics stem from their potential to be free of the constraints of publishing, thus allowing creators to engage in uncommon ways: “webcomics can encourage participatory culture and entrepreneurialism, challenge or reinforce dominant ideologies, censorship and self-censorship, and engage in activism for a variety of causes and issues, utilizing the immediacy and possibility of

subversion within the web” (Hicks, 2009). As Marianne Hicks points out, the possibilities of the Internet open a new world for webcomic creation, and with it- a plethora of possible motivation for each creation. Despite the rightful criticism directed at skopos theory, for instance the downplaying of the ST (Munday, 2016, p. 130), skopos theory has the strong advantage of being flexible and focusing its attention on the purpose and function of the translatum, thus allowing not only for the translator to make adjustments according to other external criteria, but also, perhaps ironically so, it allows for the timelessness of the theory. Vermeer (1981/2004) states that “what the skopos states is that one must translate, consciously and consistently, in accordance with some principle respecting the target text. The theory does not state what the principle is: this must be decided separately in each specific case” (p. 228). This statement does indeed pose a certain danger in terms of creating a faithful translation; a translator can feel justified in making any careless decisions, and in extreme cases, they can disregard any and all factors when translating. However, skopos theory in the hands of a skilled translator can greatly aid in rendering a work into the target culture with the greatest understanding possible.

As such, it is worth taking a look at Reiss’ and Vermeer’s base theoretical rules for skopos theory, laid out in their 1984 book, Towards a General Theory of Translational Action: Skopos Theory Explained. It is interesting to note the term “translational action” presented in the title, which is abbreviated to TA within the book. Reiss and Vermeer come up with term not only in order to include both translating and interpreting, but to also introduce a generic term which can be freely used “when terminological distinctions are not relevant for a general analysis” (p. 7). The focus on provided general terms and guidelines is a characteristic of functional translation theory, and especially skopos theory. As such, Reiss and Vermeer (1984/2014) lay out six basic rules near the end of their theoretical chapter, which are formulated in the following manner:

(1) A translatum is determined by its skopos.

(2) A translatum is an offer of information in a target culture and language about an offer of information in a source culture and language.

(3) A translatum is a unique, irreversible mapping of a source-culture offer of information.

(4) A translatum must be coherent in itself.

(5) A translatum must be coherent with the source text.

(6) These rules are interdependent and linked hierarchically in the order set out above. (p.107)

Reiss and Vermeer (1984/2014) further emphasize that the rules are general, and that any other rules that may be limited are dependent on the target culture (p. 108). It is also in this section that Reiss and Vermeer (1984/2014) assign the text as a source unit to the translational action; while the text is the highest level, the authors note that the text is, naturally, made up of a number of levels all organized according to a hierarchy (p. 108). Importantly so, they noted that the ordering and

importance of this hierarchy can change, depending on the source unit (p. 108).

Vermeer and Reiss’ general rules are self-explanatory, attributing great importance to the skopos of a text (rule 1), connecting the ST with the TT (rule 2), propagating for inter- and intratextual coherence (rules 4 and 5). As Munday (2016) points out, rule 3 is interesting is how it brings to light the irreversibility that “indicates that the function of a TT in its target culture is not necessarily the same as the ST in the source culture” (p. 127). To exemplify the working of rule 3 on the basis of webcomic translation, I will bring up yet again the example of DOGS (2015): the webcomic touches upon a topic very strictly tied to its source culture, namely the importance of sled dogs to the indigenous peoples of Canada. The webcomic has a primarily informative function, as had been previously established, and in a potential translation into Polish, this would not change.

However, what would change would be the operative function of the text; a translator or a publishing editor could deem this issue as far removed from Polish culture, and e.g. omit the authors’ afterword, which is in itself not a part of the webcomic i.e. it is not incorporated into the comic medium, but rather as a blog postscriptum. The webcomic’s primary function would be seen as informative and expressive, therefore causing a reconfiguration for our simple chart:

informative/expressive → operative

This example shows that according to skopos theory the translator, along with the people involved the translation process, such as editing and publishing, are highly important for the process of intercultural communication (rule 2); they decide what gets rendered into the target language, and thus target culture.

In order to show another tangible example of both rule 2 and 3 when applied to webcomic translation, I would like to mention the webcomic Qahera (2013-current) by Deena Mohammed.

Qahera (2011) is a webcomic that was first published in 2013, detailing the actions of the titular female muslim superhero-Qahera (2013-current). Mohammed first published the webcomic in English, giving a number of reasons as to why the webcomic was not at first published in Arabic, her native language: “the comic was created on a global platform and meant to engage with audiences from around the world who use English as their shared language of interaction”

(Mohammed, 2015, p. 120). Mohammed (2015) also further notes the universality of themes she addresses within her webcomic; while her superhero character fights misogyny in Cairo and stands up to Egyptian men, Mohammed says that global readers can also relate to the themes of harassment, sexism, feminism, and the enforcing of gender stereotypes (pp. 119-121). At the same time, Mohammed (2015) touches upon themes that are more relevant from a Western perspective, that is islamophobia, the predominance of white male characters in superhero media, and the misguided intentions of Western feminism that argue that all Muslim woman need to be liberated: “I

was also careful to signal a warning to Western, liberal feminists who I knew would inevitably hijack Qahera to serve their own purposes” (p. 120). Mohammed (2015) assigns the skopos for her own work herself, noting that the creation of the webcomic was a way of self-expression and release of frustration relating to misogyny in both her home country and overseas (p.119).

Yet while the skopos for the translation of Qahera (2013-current) is clear, the offer of information, and thus the irreversibility concept denoted in rule 3, shifts with translation, especially in dedicated segments. For instance, in pages depicting Western feminist assumptions about oppressed Muslim women, the offer of information in the SIT, which is in this case English, is clearly operative; as aforementioned, such pages as “On FEMEN” are meant as a warning and an indirect appeal to not stereotype women of Muslim faith. However, in the TIT, which in this case would be Arabic, the function changes in an Egyptian/Middle Eastern context. The page becomes informative, signaling to readers about the wrongful assumptions held by many Western activists.

Another example of this occurs on a linguistic scale; Mohammed (2015) describes the difficulties of translating the webcomic from English into Arabic due to not only the differences between Standard Modern Arabic and colloquial Egyptian Arabic, but also due to the lack of specific terms in Arabic altogether, such as “patriarchy”, “sexism”, and “misogyny” (p. 123). The reason for this is that at the time of the creation of the webcomic, such issues were unacknowledged and not considered on a wider scale, hence the lack of linguistic terms (Mohammed, 2015, p. 123).

Mohammed (2015) describes her efforts in adequately portraying the issues to an Arabic speaking audience primarily located in Egypt, and notes that the translation process caused a shift in the overall purpose of creating the webcomic: “As I translated into Arabic, I suddenly found myself free to talk about the unsung heroism of Egyptian women, their activism, Egypt’s failings and strengths. What had started out as a joke, intended to make fun of sexism and liberal feminism, suddenly became a much more complex but enriching exercise” (p. 124). The change of purpose and function is reflected by linguistic adjustments and the translation of select pages; Mohammed (2015) mentions that her page titled “Part 3: On Sexual Harassment” was an especially popular pick for Arabic translation amongst her readers (p. 124). Therefore, the translation process was a catalyst for a shift in function and tone due to the consideration of Arabic-speaking audiences, reflecting skopos theory’s rule 3 of irreversibility; Mohammed, as both author and translator had to consider the shift in purpose in order to properly represent the function of the imagetext in Arabic; to not only inform of new terms and social issues, but to also appeal for proper action and condemn immoral and degenerating behavior. This is in contrast to the original purpose of the English imagetext, which was meant as a humorous, personal social commentary. As such, it stands to see that the purpose and function of a source text (or imagetext in the case of webcomics) can shift not only overtime, but also can be revealed in the process of translation itself.

Another aspect of skopos theory that is both important to mention and that can be applied to

webcomic translation is the coherence and fidelity rule. Both refer to rules 4 and 5 of skopos theory:

the coherence rule refers to intratextual coherence, while the fidelity rule refers to intertextual coherence. Both rules appear in chapter six of Vermeer and Reiss’ book, which is in part dedicated to the success of the translational action and if it has been understood/received in the correct way by the recipient. As such, according to skopos theory, a translation needs to be judged on its functional adequacy (Munday, 2016, p. 127). However, Vermeer and Reiss note that for a translation to be successful, “it is not necessary that its interpretation correspond to the sender’s intention” (p. 97).

Rather, for a translational action to be successful, “there should be no protest against (. . .) <1> the transmission <as an event> and the manner of transmission, <2> the information offered as such, and <3> its interpretation” (Vermeer and Reiss, 1984/2014, p. 97). To give a brief explanation of each of these points: point one refers to the fact that the transmission of a translation alone could be a cause for protest, i.e. a source unit should have never been translated. Recipients could also protest against the manner of transmission, so e.g. a translation is too mild, or too rude in its tone.

Point two is explained in terms of content; however, Vermeer and Reiss (1984/2014) note that while it may refer to the skopos, the translation can often be successful despite of the protest, as a recipient can not agree with content from the source altogether, thus rendering the protest irrelevant as it does not reflect upon the translational action itself (p. 97). Point three refers to the manner of how a source was translated; a protest could occur if the source was translated in a “non-desired way” (Vermeer and Reiss, 1984/2014, p. 97). To illustrate this, an example is given of a potential inappropriate rendering of The Arabian Nights for children, where adult themes or inappropriate passages have not been deleted (Vermeer and Reiss, 1984/2014, p. 97).

In the case of webcomics, one could think of possible examples as well. Instances of content deemed “inappropriate” would most likely not be a point of contention, given that it is commonly understood that webcomics are independent in nature; if a translation is published, it is done through the use of print-on-demand services, or independent publishers that already put out alternative titles. Such instances are more likely to appear amongst other subsets of online or digital comics, e.g. webtoons (Shim et al., 2020, p. 848). However, more often than not, functional adequacy may come into question when a webcomic is taken out of its online environment and put into print form. An example of this was previously observed with Hark! A Vagrant (2007-2018), where print form seemed to not be functionally adequate to the Internet-based humor of the webcomic. In this case, intersemiotic translation took place, and ultimately the TIT was not as successful as the SIT. Coherence can frequently be violated in webcomic translation, even if a webcomic is kept within its online environment; Kleefeld (2020) mentions the tendency for non-enhanced webcomics (be it in part or whole) to be frequently re-posted and shared online, in some cases even costing their authors money and exposure (pp. 44-45; 102-108). Such instances end up not only removed from their surrounding paratext, but its multiframe, e.g. plot structure, character

continuity and literary context.

A good example are the fan translations of long-form webcomics, e.g. Tom Siddel’s Gunnerkrigg Court (2005-current). Its Polish fan translation was re-published on the joemonster.com forum website for about ten years; while the translation was (objectively speaking), fairly literal, it was coherent, and thus was not met with negative reviews. Polish readers were generally grateful, although they were not experiencing the webcomic on its original website, and e.g. did not have access to the English comment section or Siddel’s own thoughts and comments about his work. Functional adequacy is challenging to preserve in online, multimodal works in translation. While not a webcomic the Polish translation of Joyce’s Twilight, A Symphony (1996), Zmrok, Symfonia (2015), had to undergo changes (Pisarski, 2020, p. 89) due to the fact that the source work had been published online in 1996, nearly 20 years before its target Polish version.

Likewise, fidelity is hard to preserve if a webcomic is heavily reliant on online affordances- an example being Stuart Campbell’s webcomics, or Daniel Merlin Goodbrey’s hypercomics. A translation could be a subject of protest due to the complex content and the inability to even transmit it into a different online environment; moreover, Campbell’s These Memories Won’t Last (2015) is by design meant to expire. As Kleefeld (2020) comments, webcomic creators have to work in a volatile and constantly changing environment (p. 49)- technological change brings about new implications for both the SIT and the TIT, and thus, translation processes.

The coherence and fidelity rules form an important part of the concept of functional adequacy. The coherence rule is defined in the following manner: “the message should be coherent

‘in itself’ and ‘sufficiently’ coherent with the situation in which it is received, the latter aspect being the crucial one” (Vermeer and Reiss, 1984/2014, p. 98). Therefore, the TT should be understandable and relatable for the recipient, not just in the realm of text, but also contextually-wise, taking into account the recipients background knowledge, circumstances and needs; as Munday (2016) summarizes, “if the TT does not fit the needs of the TT receivers, it is simply not adequate for its purpose” (p. 128). Vermeer and Reiss portray intratextual coherence as a subjective category, they denote “understanding” as the criteria with which one can define the adequate coherence of a TT; if the recipient understands the TT, the translation is coherent enough. Following the coherence rule is the fidelity rule, that is defined in the following way: “Fidelity rule: a translational action aims for the coherent transfer of the source text” (Vermeer and Reiss, 1984/2014, p. 102). As such, the fidelity rule is also connected to coherence, but this coherence is intertextual-there has to be coherence between the translatum and the ST, specifically between: “the ST information received by the translator; the interpretation the translator makes of this information; and the information that is encoded for the TT receivers” (Munday, 2016, p. 128). Interestingly, Reiss and Vermeer (1984/2014) deem the fidelity rule less important than the intratextual coherence rule (pp. 101-103).

This is justified by the fact that there first must be a coherent translatum that can be compared and

contrasted with the ST.

However, the placing of intratextual coherence over intertextual coherence was a cause for controversy; after all, within basic skopos theory, the notion that TT must be coherent with the ST was placed last, at position five. Here is the prime example of the dethroning of the ST, a notion that was already in part addressed at the beginning of this chapter. While such an approach allows for the creation of a number of TT’s given select circumstances and functions, it can also be a motivator for lawless, translational chaos. Here it is important to note Christiane Nord’s amendment, demonstrated through her concept of loyalty within functional translation theory. Munday (2016) dubs it the “functionality plus loyalty principle” (p. 128), which is based on the fact that while functionality is an important criterion in translation, loyalty to the source should also be included as an essential criterion as well (Munday, 2016, p. 128).

Nord (1997a) sees loyalty as an interpersonal category, one that is connected between people, not the ST and TT texts themselves, namely: “[the] responsibility translators have toward their partners in translational interaction. Loyalty commits the translator bilaterally to the source and the target sides” (p. 125). In Nord’s (1997a) understanding, a translator should do their best to ensure that the skopos aligns with the author’s intentions, whilst noting that indeed this is not always possible, nor recommended (pp. 125-126). In some cases, there are anonymous ST’s which do not have an explicit author, but due to their text type e.g. IKEA furniture instructions, their purpose is clear due to the knowledge associated with the text type and the context; IKEA is a furniture and house accessory company, therefore it is easy for the translator to assume that the translated instructions need to aid the recipient in putting together their purchased furniture. Nord (1997) also mentions the possibility of the occurrence of a completely different situation in the target culture and context, which makes it near impossible to take into account the author’s intentions when translating the ST into the TT (p. 126). Nord (1997a) recommends a documentary translation in such cases in order to find out the communicative intentions of the author (p. 126).

As such, Nord (1997) postulates that her loyalty principle supports skopos theory and paints it in a less radical way:

The loyalty principle (. . .) obliges the translator to take account of the difference between culture-specific concepts of translation prevailing in the two cultures involved in the translation process, it turns Skopostheorie into an anti-universalist model, and since it induces the translator to respect the sender’s individual communicative intentions, as far as they can be elicited, it reduces the prescriptiveness of ‘radical’ functionalism. (p. 126)

Nord’s insight here is crucial to applying skopos theory to webcomic translation; as much as the TIT is important, needing to sometimes undergo significant changes in order for it to be coherent to the target recipient, it is also impossible to ignore the importance of the SIT and authorial intentions. DOGS (2015) and Qahera (2013-current) illustrate this, as both webcomics are strongly

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.