Abstract

Translating multimodal texts, comics in particular, from English into Arabic is a very
interesting branch in need of development. In this dissertation, the translation of Adventures of
Tintin in the Congo by Hergé, that is ‫ مغامرات تان تان في الكونغو‬by Mohamed Haitham is analyzed.
These comics were published in 1931 as a collected volume and translated into Arabic only in
2008. Reasons to explore the issues of translation of comics are numerous. Besides the amount
of comics produced and consumed worldwide due to their avid readership, many comics are
translated and, depending on their success or not, offer a lot of case studies for analysis and
examples of possible strategies that a translator may use. Significance of comics’ translation
underlies in the interplay of visual and verbal modes in each page. In fact, comics do not merely
rely on texts but also images and the interplay between these two will be demonstrated in this
dissertation. Moreover, given their specific language or 'grammar', comics’ readers whom the
author may rely on to interpret this specific text accordingly. The most interesting and
challenging cases involve visual and verbal interplay in communicating a message. Panels in
comics offer a multitude of material, messages and challenges that a translator needs to pay a
closer attention before translating. This dissertation seeks to explore some of these aspects using
case study mentioned above to do so. The first chapter introduces the medium of comics while
the second chapter deals with the theoretical aspects of comics’ translation, the target reader
and the cultural dimension. The third chapter offers a case study of word-image harmony with
a detailed analysis.

Key Words:
Multimodality, multimodal translation, visual language, specific literary discourse, cultural
specific items.