Übersetzungswissenschaft im interdisziplinären Dialog

This work describes and explains the evolution of Translation Studies through various discipinary matrices and its struggle for the status of an independent discipline, and taps the research potential of the neglected field of comics for Tranlsation Studies. Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical and sociological implications of the development of Translation Studies from a branch of linguistics and literary studies to a discipline in its own right. Drawing on concepts from the philosophy of science, the author identifies the fuzzy integration of translation into the system of linguistics as well as the narrow linguistic definition of the term `translation` as the main factors which motiv-ated the establishment of a new disciplinary matrix. Chapter 2 profiles the present state and future perspectives of this still rather young discipline, and discusses and defines the often used concepts of `the new paradigm of Translation Studies`, `empiricism` and `interdisciplinarity`. Based on the premises of a functional, theory-based, empirical and interdisciplinary approach, chapter 3 starts with an analysis of the notion of `triviality`, with which comics have traditionally been branded. After a translation-relevant definition of comics as a narrative genre, the chapter reviews the exist-ing literature on comics translation in various fields, such as linguistics, literary studies and semiotics, and points out the main deficiencies in the existing approaches. Chapter 4 outlines a sociological framework for the study of comics in translation based on the concepts of field, habitus and capital as developed by Pierre Bourdieu. The sociological dimension of the translation of comics is then exemplified by an overview of the history of comics translation in German-speaking countries. The chapter concludes with an empirical analysis of the comics translation market at the turn of the millennium. In chapters 5 and 6, the author develops analytical instrum-ents for the analysis of the pictorial, typographical and verbal elements of comics. The culture specific dimension of pictures, the communicative functions of visual elements, the interrelation between verbal and nonverbal signs, the various linguistic components and various problems typical of comics translation (e.g. wordplay, quotations, dialects) are discussed and illustrated with many examples. Chapter 7 represents a case study and serves as a test for the validity of the analytical instruments developed in this work. It deals with the first - politically motivated - German translation of Astérix and its visual and linguistic manipulations which are analysed as results of sociological and publishing constellations in Germany in the 1960ties.