Reframing Western Comics in Translation

Book excerpt: This book adopts an intermedial, translational, and transnational approach to the study of the Western genre in European Francophone comics and their English and Spanish translations, offering an innovative form of analysis with potential applications in future research on the translation of comics. Martinez takes the application of Bourdieu’s work on the sociology of culture to translation studies to explore the role of diverse social agents in shaping the products, processes, and reception of translations of Western comics. The book focuses on Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean Giraud’s iconic Blueberry Western comic book series as a lens through which to examine agency and sociocultural norms that influence translations and the degrees to which cartoonists, editors, translators, and censors frame the genre on a global scale. The volume both extends the borders of translation studies research beyond interlingual translation and showcases the study of comics and graphic narratives as an area of inquiry in its own right within the field. This book will be of interest to scholars in translation studies, comics studies, visual culture, and cultural studies.