Introduction

The visual is a central issue in many branches of translation, not just in picturebooks and comics, but also in such fields as audiovisual translation, technical communication, stage translation, advertising, and interpreting. Visual elements range from typography and layout to illustrations, graphics, pictures, photographs and gestures. Yet far too often visual elements and visual literacy tend to be neglected, both in research on translation and interpreting and in translator training.

The volume aims to address questions relating to the role and function of the visual in translated and interpreted texts: how the integration of the visual influences our conception of translation, cultural aspects of the visual, its impact on the reception of translations, the interplay and tension between the visual and the verbal, functional aspects of the visual, communicative practices (i.e., the production and distribution of the visual dimension in translation), as well as the impact of the ‘iconic turn’ on translator and interpreter training. In other words, the terms key to the contents of the volume are multimodality and intersemiotic translation.

While the topics and theoretical issues are varied, many interesting questions, as well as interesting areas of culture and verbal-visual narration, remain undealt with. Yet, in the hands and minds of its readers, this volume will live on and serve its purpose well.

Finally, we’d like to present a big thank you to all our enthusiastic and never-failing contributors from Austria, China (USA), Finland, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Portugal, Spain, Sweden…. You have made it all possible.