«Si sérieux s’abstenir»
Le discours sur l’humour traduit
Article language: French
Published online: 27 May 2002
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.13.1.03van
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.13.1.03van
Malgré le succès récent des Humour Studies et de la traductologie, la traduction de l’humour ne suscite pas souvent l’intérêt des chercheurs. La plupart des contributions traitent de la soi-disante « (in)traduisibilité », qui se situerait aux niveaux « culturel » et « langagier ». Bien qu’en général les pensées soient empiriquement peu fondées et théoriquement déficientes, elles nous procurent une image plus concrète de ces difficultés de traduction culturelles et linguistiques. Pourtant, la « cartographie culturelle » a tout intérêt à prendre l’humour traduit encore plus au sérieux: son absence ou présence et ses modalités se laissent lire comme des signes incontestables de frontières communautaires. La bibliographie élargie qu’offre cet article pourrait servir de point de départ d’une discussion plus articulée qui incorpore les résultats récents aussi bien des Humour Studies que de la traductologie.
Summary
Despite the breakthrough of Humour Studies and Translation Studies, the translation of humour is not often on the agenda. Most essays focus on the issue of “(un)translatability”. The untranslatability of humour is found on two levels: “culture” and “language”. Although most reflections are empirically and/or theoretically deficient, they do show to some extent how these two abstract notions may be realized. However, if one is interested in “cultural mapping”, translated humour deserves more high-standard research: the presence, absence or modalities of humour translation are undeniable signs of community borders. This article provides an enlarged bibliography as a possible starting point for a more programmatic discussion that would integrate recent developments in Humour Studies and in Translation Studies.
Article outline
- La traduction impossible?
- « Culture »
- « Langue »
- Paradigmes
- Notes
Œuvres citées Bibliographie (status quaestionis)
References (73)
Ballard, Michel. 1989. “Effets d’humour, ambiguïté et didactique de la traduction”. Meta 34: 1 20–25.
De Bruyn, Pieter. 1989. “‘My Grandfather the Hunter’: A Humorous Translation from Afrikaans to English”. Meta 34: 1. 79–83.
Delabastita, Dirk. 1987. “Translating Puns: Possibilities and Restraints”. New Comparison 3. 143–159.
. 1990. There’s a Double Tongue: An Investigation into the Translation of Shakespeare’s Wordplay. Leuven: Faculty of Arts. [Unpublished PhD Thesis.]
. 1993. There’s a Double Tongue: An Investigation into the Translation of Shakespeare’s Wordplay, with special references to Hamlet. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Diot, Roland. 1986. “Chaos par K.O: un exemple d’incompatibilité d’humour—le doublage et le sous-titrage des films des Marx Brothers”. Laurian 1986:259–269.
. 1989. “Humor for Intellectuals: Can It Be Exported and Translated? The Case of Gary Rudeau’s In Search of Reagan’s Brain”. Meta 34: 1. 84–87.
Grassegger, Hans. 1985. Sprachspiel und Übersetzung: Eine Studie anhand der Comic-Serie ‘Astérix’. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.
Laroche, Jacques. 1989. “L’humour est-il traduisible?: des notes sur un extrait de Babbitt”. Meta 34: 1. 15–19.
Laurian, Anne-Marieéd. 1986. Humour et traduction/Humo(u)r and Translation: Actes du Colloque International 13–14 Déc 1985. numéro spécial de Contrastes, Hors série T2.
Laurian, Anne-Marie et Don L.F. Nilsen. 1989. Humour et traduction: Humor and Translation. numéro spécial de Meta 34:1.
Leclercq, Guy. 1989. “Regard sur la poésie ludique ou le jeu est dans le jeu (et réciproquement)”. Meta 34: 1. 44–62.
Nilsen, Don L.F. 1989. “Better Than the Original: Humorous Translations that Succeed”. Meta 34: 1. 112–124.
Raphaelson-West, Debra S. 1989. “On the Feasibility and Strategies of Translating Humor”. Meta 34: 1. 128–141.
Sopeña-Balordi, Amalia. 1986. “Bretecher ‘a la española’ ou le rejet d’une homéogreffe”. Laurian 1986:237–253.
Tavernier-Courbin, Jacqueline. 1986. “Ernest Hemingway’s Humor in ‘The Sun also Rises’: Difficulties of Translation”. Laurian 1986:223–233.
Toury, Gideon. 1986. “What Is It that Renders a Spoonerism [Un]translatable?”. Laurian 1986:211–222.
Tymoczko, Maria. 1987. “Translating the Humour in Early Irish Hero Tales: A Polysystems Approach”. New Comparison 3. 83–103.
Vandaele, Jeroen. 1999. “‘Each Time We Laugh’: Translated Humour in Screen Comedy”. Jeroen Vandaele, éd. Translation and the (Re)Location of Meaning. Leuven: CETRA, 1999. 237–272.
Wetzel-Sahm, Birgit. 1989. “Zwischen Verfremdung, Weiterschreibung und Einbürgerung: Amerikanischer humor am Beispiel von Mark Twains ‘Journalism in Tennessee’ in deutsche Übersetzungen”. Armin Paul Frank, éd. Die literarische Übersetzung. Der lange Schatten kurzer Geschichten: Amerikanische Kurzproza in deutschen Übersetzungen. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1989. 152–171.
Bachelli, Reanda Ruso. 1991. “The Double Meaning of Meaning: Humorous Writing and Its Translatability”. International Journal of Translation 34: 1. 98–103.
Candel, Danielle. 1986. “D’un niveau de langue ou d’un registre à un autre: aspects humoristiques de la traduction-transposition”. Laurian 1986:79–97.
Capitanio, Patrizia. 1983. “Traduzioni russe e italiane delle parodie poetiche in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’”. Lingua e stile 18: 3. 361–385.
Chang, Nam Fung. 1987. “A Critical Study of the Chinese Translations of Oscar Wilde’s Comedies: With Special Reference to Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest”. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong. [mémoire non publie.]
Chiu, Lai Wan. 1993. “A Study of the Transference of Humour across Different Media of Expression: With Reference to the Teleplay, the English Written Version and the Chinese Translated Version of Yes, Prime Minister”. Hong Kong: City Polytechnic of Hong Kong. [non publié.]
Denton, John. 1994. “How ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ Became ‘Un pesce di nome Wanda’”. Il traduttore nuovo 11. 29–34.
Díaz Cintas, Jorge. 1998. “The Dubbing and Subtitling into Spanish of Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery”. Linguistica Antverpiensia 321. 55–71.
Díaz Pérez, Francisco Javier. 1999. “Translating Wordplay: Lewis Carroll in Galician and Spanish”. Jeroen Vandaele, éd. Translation and the (Re)Location of Meaning. Leuven: CETRA, 1999. 357–373.
Dolitsky, Marlene. 1988. “The Translation of Nonsense”. Babel 34: 2. 80–89.
El-Yasin, Mohammad K. 1997. “The Translatability of Arabic Jokes into English”. Meta 42: 4. 670–676.
Espasa Borrás, Eva. 1995. “Humour in Translation: Joe Orton’s The Ruffian on the Stair and Its Catalan and Valencian Versions”. Peter Jansen, éd. Translation and the Manipulation of Discourse. Leuven: CETRA, 1995. 39–54.
Fabrice, Antoine. 1997. “Les Malheurs de James, ou: l’humour victime du ‘Traducteur’”. Babel 42: 4. 106–125.
Göbel, Peter. 1995. British Humour at Its Best: An Interdisciplinary Approach of Fawlty Towers. Antwerpen: Katholieke Vlaamse Hogeschool Antwerpen. [mémoire non publié.]
Greiner, Norbert. 1993. “The Comic Matrix of Early German Shakespeare Translation”. Dirk Delabastita et Lieven D’hulst, éds. European Shakespeares: Translating Shakespeare in the Romantic Age. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1993. 203–217.
Hänninen, Anne. 1989. “A Pragmalinguistic Way of Looking at Humor”. Sonja Tirkkonen-Condit and Stephen Condit, éds. Empirical Studies in Translation and Linguistics. Joensuu: University of Joensuu, 1989. 215–243.
Laurian, Guy. 1990. “Traduction/Adaptation/Parodie: traduire Alice en toute justice”. Palimpsestes 31. 49–77.
Mao, Guirong. 1992. “On Translation of Humour from English to Chinese”. Foreign Languages 11. 48–52.
Maquet, Albert. 1988. “Histoire, analyse et traduction de la ‘Prineide’, satire en dialecte milanais”. Studia Romanica Posnaniensia XIII. 281–305.
Mateo Martínez-Bartolomé, Marta. 1994. “The Translation of Irony”. Clem Robyns, éd. Translation and the (Re)production of Culture. Leuven: CETRA, 1994. 125–138.
. 1995a. La traducción del humor: Las comedias inglesas en español. Oviedo: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Oviedo.
Santangelo, G. V.C. Saverio et M. Spaziani. 1981. Le traduzioni italiani del teatro comico francese dei secoli XVII e XVIII. Roma: Storia e letteratura.
Santoyo, Julio César. 1987. “Translatable and Untranslatable Comedy: The Case of English and Spanish”. Estudios Humanísticos Filología 91. 11–18.
Schreurs, Bernadette. 1978. “Roman–Parodie–Traduction: Les ‘Tristam Shandy Français’”. James S Holmes, José Lambert et Raymond Van den Broeck, éds. Literature and Translation: New Perspectives in Literary Studies. Leuven: acco, acco, 1978. 214–233.
Sopeña-Balordi, Amalia. 1993. “Dos traducciones (francés y español) de algunos rasgos de humor”. Inés Rodríguez Gómez et Juli Leal Duart, éds. La Locandiera Carlo Goldoni : una vida para el teatro. Valencia: Universitat de Valencia, 1993. 119–127.
. 1996. “Les composantes culturelles de l’humour à la télévision sontelles exportables?” Contrastes 261. 121–130.
Spillner, Bernd. 1980. “Semiotische Aspekte der Übersetzung von Comics-Texten”. Kodikas/ Code 4 (supplément). 73–85.
Vasconcellos, Muriel. 1986. “A Functional Model of Translation: Humor as the Case in Point”. Babel 32:3. 134–145.
von Stackelberg, Jürgen. 1972. Literarische Rezeptionsformen: Übersetzung–Supplement–Parodie. Frankfurt: Athenäum.
Wetzel-Sahm, Birgit. 1991. “Dead-Pan Emotionalized: American Humor in a German Translation of Mark Twain’s ‘Journalism in Tennessee’”. Armin Paul Frank et Harald Kittel, éds. Interculturality and the Historical Study of Literary Translations. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1991. 75–86.
Zabalbeascoa, Patrick. 1994. “Factors in Dubbing Television Comedy”. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 11. 89–99.
Zohn, Harry. 1968. “The Translation of Satire: Kurt Tucholsky and Karl Kraus”. Babel 14:4. 201–206.
Cited by (6)
Cited by six other publications
Frison, Hélène & Marie Salgues
2025. El taller de traducción teatral del C.R.E.C. o una experiencia de traducción colectiva de un sainete español. In Aproximación a la traducción de referentes culturales en el ámbito audiovisual y literario [IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature, 45], ► pp. 164 ff.
López Rubio, María
Zabalbeascoa, Patrick
Valdeón, Roberto A.
Valdeón, Roberto A.
Vandaele, Jeroen
2011. Wordplay in translation. In Handbook of Translation Studies [Handbook of Translation Studies, 2], ► pp. 180 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
