American Comics and Italian Cultural Identity in 1968: Translation Challenges in a Syncretic Text

Laura Chiara Spinelli

doi:10.5209/estr.71489

Abstract

Translation supports the construction of a national identity through the selection of foreign texts to be transferred to the target language. Within this framework, the effort made in the 1960s by Italian editors and translators in giving new dignity to comics proves emblematic. This paper aims to reconstruct the reception of American comic strips in Italy going through the issues of Linus published in 1967 and 1968: the selected cartoonists (e.g. Al Capp, Jules Feiffer, and Walt Kelly) participate in the cultural debate of the time discussing politics, war, and civil rights. The analysis of the translation strategies adopted will reveal the difficulty of reproducing the polysemy of metaphors, idioms and puns, trying to maintain consistency between the visual and the verbal code, but primarily the need to create a purely Italian cultural discourse.

Highlights

Translation participates “in the powerful acts that create knowledge and shape culture” (Gentzler & Tymoczko, 2002: XXI): through the conscious selection of texts, promoted by publishing policies, foreign influences may penetrate the target context.In the 1960s, the efforts of editors and translators allowed for a re-evaluation of comics in Italy, acknowledging the ability of popular art forms to convey cultural values in mass society, as Umberto Eco pointed out in Apocalittici e integrati (1964)
The published texts offered insights into the reality of the 1960s looking beyond national borders: it is worth noting that the first issue included only translated foreign works, namely Peanuts, Krazy Kat, Popeye and Li’l Abner, revealing the editors’ interest in American comic strips
This paper aims to reconstruct the value system underlying the translated texts and the strategies adopted in translation by going through the issues of Linus published in 1967 and 1968, an age of conflict and change, characterized by the student protests, opposition to the Vietnam War, and the challenge to expansionism

Summary

Introduction

Translation participates “in the powerful acts that create knowledge and shape culture” (Gentzler & Tymoczko, 2002: XXI): through the conscious selection of texts, promoted by publishing policies, foreign influences may penetrate the target context.In the 1960s, the efforts of editors and translators allowed for a re-evaluation of comics in Italy, acknowledging the ability of popular art forms to convey cultural values in mass society, as Umberto Eco pointed out in Apocalittici e integrati (1964). It is no coincidence that the semiotician conversed on the potential of graphic narratives with Elio Vittorini and Oreste Del Buono in the first issue of Linus magazine (April 1965). This periodical gathered together some intellectuals of the time, in connection with the bookshop and publishing house Milano Libri: Giovanni Gandini, the editor-in-chief, Ranieri Carano, Vittorio Spinazzola, Franco and Bruno Cavallone. The published texts offered insights into the reality of the 1960s looking beyond national borders: it is worth noting that the first issue included only translated foreign works, namely Peanuts, Krazy Kat, Popeye and Li’l Abner, revealing the editors’ interest in American comic strips. Conceived as a history of manners across the key stages of mass civilization, these strips responded to “the common man’s urge to self-portraiture” (Politzer, 1963: 46)

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Conclusion