#ATA63French: Onomatopoeia in Comics

I’m proud to announce that in two weeks, I’ll be a Distinguished Speaker for the French Division at 63rd annual American Translators Association’s conference this October in Los Angeles.

On Friday, October 14, 2022, at 11:00 AM in San Gabriel C of the downtown Westin Bonaventure, I’ll be speaking on “Onomatopoeia in Comics.”

Sitting midway between word and picture, onomatopoeia in comics present a unique challenge in which the meaning we’re usually advised to prioritize is subservient to shape and sound. Deployed both communicatively (for clarity or emphasis) and figuratively (for mood or characterization), they challenge translators to think visually as letterers, aurally as poets, and holistically as designers. This materiality may carry beyond the page. A heightened awareness of the physicality of speech and the word-object as a record of more manifest intervention offer potential embodiments to the act of translation that give the lie to invisibility.

#ATA63French