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Article published In: Target
Vol. 22:2 (2010) ► pp.237–263

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A model for Hebrew translation of British humor

Amplification and overstatement

 | Tel-Aviv University
Published online: 12 January 2011
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.22.2.04ass
The influence of translational norms on the translation of humor manifested in prose fiction has not been a focus of much research. This paper will try to establish the existence of an institutionalized strategy of amplification, presumably born out of a wish to bridge the cultural gap reflected in two different national traditions of literary humor. The effect of amplification, as it is implemented in the various Hebrew translations of Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers and Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, is analyzed on the basis of Attardo’s General Theory of Verbal Humor (. 2001. Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The use of amplification as a model for the translation of humor from the beginning of the 20th century, and its diminishing currency from the 1980s onwards are also discussed.
Résumé
L’impact des normes traductives sur la traduction de l’humour dans la fiction narrative n’a pas suscité trop de recherches jusqu’à nos jours. L’article qui suit se donne pour tâche d’établir qu’il existe une stratégie institutionnelle de l’amplification, née de la volonté de combler la distance culturelle entre deux traditions nationales particulières de l’humour. L’effet de l’amplification, tel qu’il se manifeste dans The Pickwick Papers (Charles Dickens) et dans Three Men in a boat (Jerome K.Jerome), est abordé à partir de la théorie générale de l’humour d’Attardo (. 2001. Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Autres sujets de discussion: le recours à l’amplification comme modèle dans l’approche de la traduction de l’humour, depuis les débuts du XXe siècle
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.British humor and Hebrew humor: A cultural gap
  • 3.Theoretical framework in humor research
  • 4.Historical context: The development of the model
  • 5.The institutionalized strategy of amplification: Findings
    • 5.1Physical humor
    • 5.2Exaggeration humor
    • 5.3Faulty reasoning
    • 5.4Mock-epic humor
  • 6.Historical perspective: The diminishing currency of the model in recent years
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (44)
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