Translation and conflict: American comics within the publishing policy of “Linus” magazine

Abstract

Acknowledging the role of translation in circulating and resisting works that create the intellectual and moral environment for conflict (Baker), this paper aims to analyze the reception of American comics in Italy, focusing in particular on “Linus” magazine, which from 1965 on intends to give new cultural legitimacy to the genre, based on the interaction between words and  pictures. In the eyes of the adult audience, an ideological statement unfolds in comics, and the translation of the written text, never separated from the visual code, offers a selective representation of it: translation implies a choice and, by virtue of its partiality, becomes a committed and partisan art (Tymoczko, Gentzler). The intellectuals gathered around “Linus”, such as Gandini, Carano, Vittorini, Del Buono and Eco, witness a reconceptualization of power and society. It is the age of the opposition to the Vietnam War, the challenge to expansionist ideologies, and the student protests. The analysis of the magazine’s cultural policy and of specific translation strategies will show how translation negotiates power relations: it can augment the ideology of the source text or be in conflict with it. Hence, “Linus” distances itself from Tales of the Green Beret (1967) on USA soldiers in Vietnam, despite publishing it, and practices censorship against Li’l Abner’s satire on Bob Kennedy (1968), revealing the importance of what is silenced, left out and omitted in the target text (Venuti).