Comment dire « Abraracourcix » en suédois ? : Une étude sur la traduction des noms français en suédois dans deux bandes dessinées Astérix

Sammanfattning

Comic books are a part of many people’s childhoods. They are rarely limited to the speakers of the works’ original language, but many are translated and known around the world. These include Donald Duck, Tintin, and Asterix. The aim of this study is to see how the French names in the two Asterix comic books La serpe d’or (Asterix and the Golden Sickle) and Les lauriers de César (Asterix and the Laurel Wreath). The works of Newmark and Lathey serve as the theoretical background for this essay, discussing different translation methods and aspects which are important for the translator to keep in mind about their intended audience, such as their age and possible knowledge of a different culture or language. The faithful translation and the communicative translation methods are the ones which aim to keep the translation as similar to the original text as possible (as described by Newmark). After analysing the names (translating them from French to Swedish, or from Swedish to French in order to see similarities or differences in meaning between the original names and their translations) we can conclude that the names have been translated with a big emphasis on describing the character’s personality, appearance or occupation. Regarding the names which have not been translated, it was not deemed necessary to translate them in order to get the message about the character across.