Sarjakuva translatorisen toiminnan välineenä

Previously, translatorial action and paraprofessional translating have been examined primarily from the perspective of interlingual translation and interpretation (e.g. Huotari, Hjort & Veivo 2023). In this article, we introduce two types of translatorial action, that have been rarely recognized in earlier studies: intersemiotically translating social welfare documents into comics and using these comics as tools in interactions between social workers and their clients. As research material, we utilize two kinds of data: comics-style documents and interviews with social workers who use these documents in their work. For the analysis, we employ the visual grammar theory by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). The research method is content analysis. The metafunctional analysis brings forth numerous practical, symbolic and compositional details that have to be considered during the translation process. Consequently, we propose that deliberate decisions about the informational content and the atmosphere of the panels together constitute a visual translation strategy. Our findings also suggest that comics aid in explaining services and rules, supporting social workers role as paraprofessional translators as well as worker and client memory. This dual-level translatorial action—creating and using comics—enhances client participation and accessibility and strengthens the role of social workers as interpreters.