The latest issue of Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature arrived last week. It is vol. 56. No. 1. The journal has a regular feature called Translators and Their Books. This issue includes an article called “I am a Translator, a Transmitter of Culture” by Anna Becchi. The author is a translator from German, Dutch and English into Italian. She also scouts for Italian publishers. She is a literary agent for German publishers for children.
In this article Becchi speaks to the role of translators as cultural mediators. She presents a discussion about the decision to domesticate a text. She indicates that changing the name of a character in a children’s book is dependent on the age of the reader. In summary, she suggests that globalization has had a “paradoxical outcome” in the field of children’s books.
Bookbird also features other articles on translations and reviews books from publishers around the world.
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