Difficulties And Strategies Of The Translation Of American Superhero Comics

In recent years,thanks to the popularity of American superhero films,comics,games,toys,gears and theme parks on American superheroes have developed into a promising industry in China.As the inspiration for those films,American superhero comics are also emerging in Chinese publishing market.Unfortunately,neither the American superhero itself,which has become a symbol of pop culture,nor the American superhero comics,has attracted much attention from domestic scholars.As a result,the translation of American superhero comics has long been regarded as a simple translation activity rather than a cultural activity.Translators seldom consider the difficulties caused by the characteristics of this special cultural form,resulting in poor Chinese translation.Based on the study of CAPTAIN MARVEL(2014)by Kelly Sue DeConnick,an American comic book writer,this paper will analyze the characteristics and strategies of the translation of American superhero comics.Firstly,the translators should have a thorough understanding of the background knowledge of American superhero comics.Not only should they fully understand the vast and complicated fictional universe,but they also have to be familiar with other pop culture works that the comics have paid homage to.Secondly,the language of American superhero comics is highly specialized,which is extremely information-intensive,and shows the features of the characters in the comics.Last but not least,translators should take a lot into account when translating the terminologies of American superhero comics,including legal factors,brand image and other factors.To translate American superhero comics well,translators should first master a set of specialized resources and methods to search for relevant background knowledge quickly and accurately.They also need to improve their language skills,learn to balance the precision of language with the amount of information,and add footnotes of extra information.As for the terminologies,translator should first try to acquire the existing resources from the entertainment companies or publishing houses,and then to deal with the remaining difficult terms creatively.