In a world built for neurotypical people, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often overlooked when it comes to literature, both within and outside of the English language. Initial research on the accessibility of diagnostic screening tools for autism in translation, revealed a concerning lack of attention to essential culturally specific contexts. This research initiated questioning regarding the accessibility of other fields of translation, which highlighted a gap in research relating to children’s literature about ASD in translation.
The aim of this dissertation is to analyse children’s literature in translation about ASD and explore the ways in which it reframes cultural context to make it relevant for the target reader. This project will critically analyse approaches of translating literature accurately for the target audience, as well as highlight the increased need for non-verbal description often required when writing for people with ASD. This project adopts an analytic approach, performing a close text analysis on several literary sources including Spanish and English children’s literature, and secondary sources. Comparative analyses of the source texts (ST) and target texts (TT) are undertaken using House’s Functional-Pragmatic Model (2009), focusing on three primary research questions which have been answered by the end of the dissertation project.
The objective of this study is to evaluate the success of cultural and linguistic aspects of preexisting translations, whilst examining the function of literature about autism for children. These findings indicate that a more detailed and genre-specific translation model is needed for texts about ASD, with a focus on the multimodal aspects of the text that support neurodivergent comprehension. This project concludes by suggesting an improved version of the traditional Forward-Back Translation Model that works to incorporate diverse cultural contexts and be inclusive, accessible, and accurate in terms of information about ASD.
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- Maddie Mae Price (Autor), 2024, The translation of Autism Spectrum Disorder within Spanish and English Children's Literature, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1576060