Paratextuality and translation: Paratranslation in children’s literature

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to prove the empiric, sociologic and discursive usefulness of the notion of paratranslation as a proper methodological tool for the study of paratextual elements in translation in general, and specifically, of Children’s Literature Translation. The contribution opens with an overview of the investigation in Children’s Literature Translation, continues with an extensive and updated theoretical introduction about the notion of paratranslation, a new term in translation studies coined by the Translation and Paratranslation research group at the University of Vigo. Proceeds with a detailed description, an elaborated analysis and a complete critical study of the corpus constituted by a real work of Children’s Literature Translation requested by the Spanish publisher Imaginarium, which consisted of the translation into Spanish of two children's books written in French. It presents the reading and interpreting of the symbolism of stripes used in typographic design of the title letter of the two books in French edition, in order to demonstrate how the paratranslation of such typography was conducted in the Spanish edition. The article is concluded by pointing out the urgent need to accept an ethical threshold in the practice of translation, implicit in the notion of paratranslation, with the purpose of establishing, once and for all, a permanent dialogue between translators and editors, to ensure that no translation is published without its corresponding paratranslation.