Banner for Word Work in a Visual Medium

Word Work in a Visual Medium

by

Lecture Humanities

Mon, Apr 7, 2025

12 PM – 1:20 PM EDT (GMT-4)

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room 144

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

2
Registered

Registration

Details

Flyer for Word Work in a Visual Medium
Begin with a poetics of comics: when does less make for more in a speech balloon? Can enjambment enliven a caption? Is translating comics translating typography? Surprising kinships surface in discourses for these two fields — virtuous invisibility and transparency. And what of onomatopoeia? The word-object incarnate, for which shape and sound supersede semantics, challenges translators to think visually as letterers, aurally as poets, and holistically as designers, taking them down to the atomic, syllabic level. Finally, this survey of serendipities, inspirations, constraints, and frustrations drawn from twenty years in the trenches takes a step back from textual questions to consider how comics’ unique position in contemporary publishing raises issues of reception relevant to all translation.
Food Provided

Where

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room 144

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Speakers

Edward Gauvin's profile photo

Edward Gauvin

Translator, Writer

Edward Gauvin translates from French with a personal focus on post-Surrealist literatures of the fantastic and graphic novels, of which he has translated more than 450 to date. His writing and translations have appeared in McSweeney's, the Paris Review, the New York Times, Harper’s, Subtropics, and LitHub. He has received fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim and Lannan foundations, the NEA, PEN America, the Fulbright program, and the French and Belgian governments. His debut story collection, The Ear in All the Night, is due out in December from 7.13 Books.


Hosted By

Program in Translation and Intercultural Communications | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies