[Colloque] Translating Comics: Between Bubbles, Cultures, and Constraints in East Asia, 10 & 11 April 2026
from 10 April to 11 April 2026, Paris Nanterre University & INHA, Paris
11/04 > Walter Benjamin Room, National Institute of Art History (INHA), 2 rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris
We will focus on translations from or into Asian languages, with particular attention to comics from the Sinophone, Japanese, and Korean spheres (manhua, manga, manhwa). The adaptation of national or foreign literary works will also be considered a form of translation. We will also consider the editorial dimension of translations: for example, which Japanese works have been translated into Chinese, and which Chinese works into Japanese?
Topics include:
- Translation of the various textual components (dialogue, onomatopoeia, titles…)
- Cultural adaptation and localization strategies
- Editorial and graphic constraints (format, reading direction, lettering…)
- Specific issues in various graphic traditions (manga, manhua, webtoon…)
- Case studies of published or ongoing translations
- The translator’s role in the production chain
- The issue of adaptation
- The editorial selection
Legends of Assassins (Chen Uen)Fri, 10 April 2026
Conference room – Max Weber Building, University of Paris Nanterre (200 avenue de la République, 92000 Nanterre)
9:00 Opening Address
9:10–9:45 Antonio Paoliello-Palermo (Barcelona): Translating Sinophone Comics: The Role of Translators’ Notes in Italian Editions
9:50–10:25 Paula Martínez Sirés (Tokyo): Prefaces, Afterwords, and Cultural Mediation: The Role of Manga Translators in Spain’s Early Manga Reception [ONLINE — JST (+7h)]
10:30–11:05 Martina Caschera (Bergamo): Translating “Chinese comics”: two case studies from the Italian context [ONLINE — CET]
11:10–11:45 Asuka Ozumi (Turin): Making the Translator Visible: Notes and Paratext in Italian Manga Translation
11:50–12:25 Blanche Delaborde (Fukuoka): Translating Gender and Queerness: Around Boys Run The Riot [ONLINE — JST (+7h)]
Short lunch break (via catering in the lobby)
13:10–13:45 Dalma Kálovics (Kyoto): From foreignization to domestication—Korean comics in Japan [ONLINE — KST (+7h)]
13:50–14:25 Bounthavy Suvilay (Lille): Editorial strategies for material domestication: history of the first manga translations in France (1970–2000) [ONLINE — GMT (CET -1h)]
14:30–15:05 Giovanni Stigliano Messuti (Tokyo): How did it end up there? Editorial solutions to linguistic and visual extravagance in the collected works of Hanawa Kazuichi (1972–1980) [ONLINE — JST (+7h)]
15:10–15:45 Alba Quintairos-Soliño (Zaragoza): Shaping the Idea of Manga through Translation: The Case of Editorial Decisions in Spain
15:50–16:25 Wenlan Xiang (Paris Nanterre): Translating Linguistic Otherness in Comics between French and Chinese: Tintin vs. Sanmao
Sat., 11 April 2026
Walter Benjamin Room, National Institute of Art History (INHA) (2 rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris)
9:00–9:35 Yoon-Jung Do (Incheon): A Study on the Translation Patterns of Characters in Images within Graphic Novels: Focusing on Works Translated Between Korea and France [ONLINE — KST (+7h)]
9:40–10:15 Daryna Morhun (Kyiv): Negotiating Word, Image, and Culture: Intermedial Challenges in Manhua Translation
10:20–10:55 Nick Stember (London): Soldiers, Citizens, and Compatriots: Bo Yang’s Contentious Localization of Popeye
11:00–11:35 Yangjie Zhao (Paris): Translating Marginal Women: French Mediation of Rural Chinese Lives in Ma Maman and Le Printemps prochain
11:40–12:15 Inkyeong Chung (Philadelphia/Zürich): Beyond Untranslatability: ‘Che’ (체) as a Linguistic–Visual Register in Korean Comic Translation
Short lunch break
13:00–13:35 Dana Iacob (Cluj-Napoca): Ethics of Translating Darkness: Moral Ambiguity and Translator Responsibility in Dark Fantasy Manga
13:40–14:15 Sangi Yi (Seoul): Translating Voice and Performance in the Korean Webtoon 정년 이 (Jeongnyeon): Constraints and Possibilities in the Japanese Context [ONLINE – KST (+7h)]
14:20–14:55 Olga Bobrowska (Kraków): Adaptation as Ideological Practice. The Case of a Puppet Animated Film Rooster Crows at Midnight (Banye ji jiao, 1964, dir. You Lei)
15:00–15:35 Mariia Guleva (Prague): A featherless bird that flew internationally: a case study of a 1956 manhua and a 1960 diafilm
15:40–16:15 Lena Henningsen (Heidelberg): Adaptation and Transmediation
16:20–16:55 Suk-Hee Joo (Bordeaux): Adapting a short story by Chung Bora into manhwa: translating the invisible
Book of abstracts: Book of abstracts_0223
Scientific Committee:
Marie Laureillard (Paris Nanterre University), Jaqueline Berndt (Stockholm University)
Organizing Committee:
Wenlan Xiang (Paris Nanterre University)
Communication language: English
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Marie Laureillard (9 avril 2026). [Colloque] Translating Comics: Between Bubbles, Cultures, and Constraints in East Asia, 10 & 11 April 2026. CEEI. Consulté le 19 août 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/15qto
