Speaking Truth or Power? Issues in Translation of South African Children’s Picture Books
Children’s books communicate responsibilities and obligations such as good manners or how to overcome personal challenges. Through these stories, children learn how their society expects them to look and behave. Using a sample of bilingual picture books from the Nal’ibali reading campaign in South...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Research and Postgraduate Support Directorate
2024-12-01
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| Series: | African Journal of Inter-Multidisciplinary Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.dut.ac.za/index.php/ajims/article/view/1387 |
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| author | Jade Smith Ralph Adendorff |
| author_facet | Jade Smith Ralph Adendorff |
| author_sort | Jade Smith |
| collection | DOAJ |
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Children’s books communicate responsibilities and obligations such as good manners or how to overcome personal challenges. Through these stories, children learn how their society expects them to look and behave. Using a sample of bilingual picture books from the Nal’ibali reading campaign in South Africa, this research investigates the naturalised meanings projected to young readers by English stories and their Afrikaans translations. The visual symmetry of the English and Afrikaans versions of the story on a page may lead readers to think that these are direct translations or that the children are accessing similar meanings. The research questions ask whether the English readers are exposed to the same norms as the Afrikaans readers. Using a systemic functional linguistic framework to code evaluations of the books’ characters, we foreground the differences in interpersonal meaning between the English and Afrikaans translations and why these are ideologically significant. Findings show that the Afrikaans translations prioritise a young girl’s looks above her creativity, but they also construe a dedicated father who spends time with his child. Despite the small corpus, these preliminary findings indicate a need for a wider study of translation in children’s books to investigate the congruency of their translations.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-59e0a1ecc5e74743b71b7900bb0f4730 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2663-4597 2663-4589 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Research and Postgraduate Support Directorate |
| record_format | Article |
| series | African Journal of Inter-Multidisciplinary Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-59e0a1ecc5e74743b71b7900bb0f47302025-01-04T20:39:35ZengResearch and Postgraduate Support DirectorateAfrican Journal of Inter-Multidisciplinary Studies2663-45972663-45892024-12-016110.51415/ajims.v6i1.1387Speaking Truth or Power? Issues in Translation of South African Children’s Picture BooksJade Smith0Ralph Adendorff1Durban University of Technology, South AfricaRhodes University, South Africa Children’s books communicate responsibilities and obligations such as good manners or how to overcome personal challenges. Through these stories, children learn how their society expects them to look and behave. Using a sample of bilingual picture books from the Nal’ibali reading campaign in South Africa, this research investigates the naturalised meanings projected to young readers by English stories and their Afrikaans translations. The visual symmetry of the English and Afrikaans versions of the story on a page may lead readers to think that these are direct translations or that the children are accessing similar meanings. The research questions ask whether the English readers are exposed to the same norms as the Afrikaans readers. Using a systemic functional linguistic framework to code evaluations of the books’ characters, we foreground the differences in interpersonal meaning between the English and Afrikaans translations and why these are ideologically significant. Findings show that the Afrikaans translations prioritise a young girl’s looks above her creativity, but they also construe a dedicated father who spends time with his child. Despite the small corpus, these preliminary findings indicate a need for a wider study of translation in children’s books to investigate the congruency of their translations. https://journals.dut.ac.za/index.php/ajims/article/view/1387picture booksappraisalmultilingualismtranslation |
| spellingShingle | Jade Smith Ralph Adendorff Speaking Truth or Power? Issues in Translation of South African Children’s Picture Books African Journal of Inter-Multidisciplinary Studies picture books appraisal multilingualism translation |
| title | Speaking Truth or Power? Issues in Translation of South African Children’s Picture Books |
| title_full | Speaking Truth or Power? Issues in Translation of South African Children’s Picture Books |
| title_fullStr | Speaking Truth or Power? Issues in Translation of South African Children’s Picture Books |
| title_full_unstemmed | Speaking Truth or Power? Issues in Translation of South African Children’s Picture Books |
| title_short | Speaking Truth or Power? Issues in Translation of South African Children’s Picture Books |
| title_sort | speaking truth or power issues in translation of south african children s picture books |
| topic | picture books appraisal multilingualism translation |
| url | https://journals.dut.ac.za/index.php/ajims/article/view/1387 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jadesmith speakingtruthorpowerissuesintranslationofsouthafricanchildrenspicturebooks AT ralphadendorff speakingtruthorpowerissuesintranslationofsouthafricanchildrenspicturebooks |