Att översätta faktaböcker för barn: Om textuell, interpersonell och innehållslig anpassning

Research on children's literature mainly involves literary texts. This article focuses on the underresearched genre of information books, and analyses the Swedish translation of a French information book intended for children aged 4-7. The source and target texts are studied from a Hallidayan perspective by situating the texts in their respective contexts of situation and culture, and comparing their textual, interpersonal and ideational properties. The analysis reveals that significant alterations have been made in the Swedish target text to simplify linguistic complexity. On the interpersonal level, the implied child and adult voices are on a more equal footing in the Swedish translation, and the Swedish child is more often invited to engage with the text. In addition, a number of changes have been made to the ideational structure to adjust the target text to Swedish social and historical conditions, as well as to Swedish ideology, most notably passages related to gender.