Same-sex Couples in Children’s Picture Books in French and in English: Censorship Somewhere Over the Rainbow?

Abstract

This paper focuses on children’s picture books featuring same-sex couples in Anglophone and Francophone cultures, and more particularly in France and in the United States, with a particular interest in the censorship of these works. Censoring a book is common in the United States. This essay is a reflexion on the publication and reception of Francophone picture books on the topic – originals and translations. In this perspective, it also considers the question of the circulation of these books between the two cultures, as well as towards the two cultures respectively, Francophone picture books tending to be bolder in content than their Anglophone counterparts. Some references used to explain reception are gathered thanks to primary sources, in particular personal communications; others come from secondary sources, such as academic publications, blogs, and newspaper articles. This paper also explores the different forms of censorship, including the translation of a work from another culture or the alterations to the illustrations of an original work in an adaptation. The contrastive approach adopted reveals that, despite the growing number of picture books featuring same-sex couples, censorship is not only an American reality but a French reality as well.

La traduzione dei classici per l'infanzia in una prospettiva di genere

“…In questo modo, le figure materne vengono ricondotte verso il modello dominante e borghese della madre di famiglia dolce e accudente. Le analisi recenti che si concentrano sulla traduzione di testi con tematiche e personaggi LGBTQ+ (Epstein 2017;Tarif 2018;Forni 2019;Zanfabro 2019;Spallaccia 2021) si rivelano particolarmente interessanti non solo per il sistematico ridimensionamento degli aspetti legati alle identità non binarie e alla sessualità non eterosessuale, ma anche per la luce che gettano sulle forme di censura spesso all'opera in questi testi (cfr. Tarif 2018) e sull'importanza del linguaggio (cfr.…”

“…Zanfabro 2019; Spallaccia 2021). Nell'analisi condotta sulla traduzione di un corpus di albi illustrati a tematica LGBTQ+ provenienti da Francia e Stati Uniti, Tarif (2018) si concentra anche sulla censura e sulle diverse forme in cui si attua.…”

Une maison d’édition pour la jeunesse indépendante et militante. Engagement, traduction et questions de genre chez Lo Stampatello

“…Comme le souligne Noël (2012, 12), "l'édition de livres constitue un point nodal dans la production et la diffusion des idées dans une société à un moment donné" et "présente un enjeu politique particulier" (ibidem). Ainsi, les éditeur.rices peuvent mettre en place des formes de "censure préalable" (Tarif 2018) en refusant de publier certains ouvrages ou auteur.es, ce qui est souvent le cas en littérature jeunesse pour ces textes qui abordent des thématiques liées aux questions de genre, notamment lorsqu'il s'agit de les traduire (Amadori 2021;Spallaccia 2021;Tonin 2021;Pederzoli c.d.p. ).…”