On translating picture books

Despite their effect on the reader, illustrations are often overlooked in translation work. Moreover, the problems of the visual attract little attention from scholars in the field, even though translators often have to deal with the visual, e.g., in literary, technical, and media translation. Visual literacy is also overlooked in translator training. This article deals with the visual in translation from one viewpoint: that of translating picture books. The author discusses picture books as iconotexts, unities formed by words, images, and effects. In picture books, there is interaction between two semiotic systems, one verbal and the other visual. The starting point is that translation is rewriting for different audiences in different situations. The author considers the translation of the visual within the wider frame of hermeneutics and uses semiotics in analyzing iconotexts. The article is based on two of her books: Translating for Children (2000) and the forthcoming Kuva kääntäjän kädessä ("Translating the Visual)).