From essay to comic: in search of diversity in the multimodal translation of Sapiens

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of diversity projected onto prehistory in Yuval Noah Harari's comic book Sapiens: A Graphic History, The Birth of Humankind (2020). Through this graphic adaptation of the essay Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2014), the Israeli historian offers a new reading of prehistoric society, while challenging multiple stereotypes and prejudices that shape the collective imaginary about those remote times. In view of the latest trends in Translation Studies, which invite scholars to understand the concept of translation beyond the linguistic sphere, the graphic version of Harari's essay can be seen as a multimodal translation, a combination of intralingual and intersemiotic translation (Jakobson 1959/2000). In order to explore the importance of expressions of diversity in both works, a parallel reading of them was carried out and the model of translatological and semiological analysis proposed by Pereira (2008) has been applied. The study has shown that, through the translation, Harari confects an ideological message to establish parallels between prehistoric times and the contemporary world, in terms of ethnic-cultural, affective-sexual and gender diversity.