Collaborative self-translation – Pizzeria Kamikaze as a case in point

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines graphic novels through the prism of translation and adaptation studies. Based on the similarity between the mechanisms of interlingual translation and adaptation, or intermedial translation, we discuss the applicability of the concept of ‘collaborative self-translation’ to a case study in which the author and the illustrator function as ‘bilingual’ co-authors. Thus, we provide a unique point of view on graphic novels in general, shedding light on their multimodality and the way they combine the verbal and the visual. Our case study is the graphic novel Pizzeria Kamikaze, first published in 2004, which is about people in an afterworld that actually mirrors life on earth. Based on a story by the Israeli author Etgar Keret, it was transformed into a graphic novel by Keret and the illustrator Asaf Hanuka. This collaboration, facilitated by the artists’ shared social milieu and artistic interests, enabled them to realise, in an innovative way, the elements of comics and cinema already embedded in the original work. The result is a multidimensional work – a satire on Israeli society which also evokes the fantastic world of comics and simulates the dark atmosphere of film noir, while pointing to universal dilemmas.