Translation, Humour and Literature

Delia Chiaro is Professor of English Linguistics and Translation at the University of Bologna, Italy.

Examines the issues of translating humour within a range of different literary traditions and across various languages. This title analyses humour and translation in every day life, including jokes and cross-cultural humour, and looks at humour and translation in literature through the ages.

Translation studies and humour studies are disciplines that have been long-established but seldom looked at in conjunction.  This volume uses literature as the common ground and examines issues of translating humour within a range of different literary traditions.  It begins with an analysis of humour and translation in every day life, including jokes and cross-cultural humour, and then moves on to looking at humour and translation in literature through the ages. 

Despite growing interest and a history of collaborative study, there has been little translation studies scholarship published in this area.  This collection features a comprehensive introduction by the editor, which covers strategies and techniques for translating humour as well as the pragmatics involved. The book will appeal to scholars and postgraduates in translation and interpreting studies and humour studies.

Translation studies and humour studies are disciplines that have been long-established but seldom looked at in conjunction.  This volume uses literature as the common ground and examines issues of translating humour within a range of different literary traditions.  It begins with an analysis of humour and translation in every day life, including jokes and cross-cultural humour, and then moves on to looking at humour and translation in literature through the ages. 

Despite growing interest and a history of collaborative study, there has been little translation studies scholarship published in this area.  This collection features a comprehensive introduction by the editor, which covers strategies and techniques for translating humour as well as the pragmatics involved. The book will appeal to scholars and postgraduates in translation and interpreting studies and humour studies.

1. Translation and Humour, Humour and Translation Delia Chiaro; Part I. Translating Humour in Society; 2. Linguistic Factors in Humour Graeme Ritchie; 3. Translating English into English in Jokes and Humour Christie Davies; Part II. Translating Humour in Antiquity; 4. Translating Aristophanes into English Michael Ewans; 5. Translating Greece to Rome: Humour and the Re-Invention of Popular Culture I. A. Ruffell; Part III. Translating the Humour of the Great Literary Tradition; 6. Rewriting the French Tradition: Boccaccio and the Making of the Novella Charmaine Lee; 7. Translating Humour For Performance: Two Hard Cases from Inoue Hisashi's Play, Yabuhara Kengyo Marguerite Wells; 8. The Laughing Word of James Joyce Rosa Maria Bollettieri Bosinelli and Samuel P. Whitsitt; 9. Translating Humphry Clinker's Verbal Humour Marta Mateo; 10. Language-Based Humour and the Untranslatable: The Case of Ziad Rahbani's Theatre Nada Elzeer; Part IV. Coda; 11. Tripartite: Cross-Talk Acts Walter Redfern; Bibliography; Index.