Intersemiotic Translation, Illustration and the Manipulation of Culture

The present study aims to show how intersemiotic translation could be a stage for manipulation and alteration of the original text and culture. In a similar vein with Jakobson''s (1959) tripartite typology of translation، this study states that when the medium of communication is changed، clear traces of manipulation could be observed. This is specially the case when the textual medium is changed into the visual medium such as comics، pictures and book illustrations. The present paper’s claim is that when a translated book is published in the language of the target the pictorial elements tend not to fully manifest the cultural atmosphere of the original، but to distort the culture and words of the original. Such a manipulation of the original moves between the medium of translation i. e. textual and visual. The current claim not only suggest a superficial manipulation of the physical، atmospheric setting، but it also unveils a purposeful trend which aims to relocate the culture of the original in the complete، new arena of the target. Making use of Khayyam’s poetry illustrated by Edward Sullivan، the study found clear examples of manipulation where the words of the original where by some means were manipulated intersemiotically، and thus resulted in an altered image of Iranian culture.