Channel Crossings: challenges and strategies in the translation of French and English children's books

The venue for this lecture has been changed to Room A130, entrance via the College Building.

Why are far fewer French children's books translated into English than the other way round? What approaches have translators in the different countries taken to the culture-specific challenges of mediating such works to a new audience, and do these differ significantly?  Have imitations been preferred to translations? Examples will be drawn from a number of (recent and not so recent) books for young readers to explore issues that arise when children's books cross the Channel.

Penny Brown is Honorary Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Manchester and has taught courses on children's literature and fairy tales for many years. She has written on both text and images in French and English children's books of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and on portrayals of the Second World War and the Algerian War in French children's books. She has also produced a two volume Critical History of French Children's Literature, from 1600 to the Present Day (Routledge, 2008).