In:Humour in Self-Translation
Edited by Margherita Dore
[Topics in Humor Research 11] 2022
► pp. 215–232
Chapter 10How funny am I?
Humour, self-translation and translation of the self
Published online: 13 October 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/thr.11.10ven
https://doi.org/10.1075/thr.11.10ven
Abstract
This paper explores and responds to the question: how funny am I in self-translation? Taking up Eco’s notion that translative processes involve negotiation (2004), the authors explore the way in which the self is negotiated in the process of moving across and between texts-in-translation. They examine and discuss examples of their own self-translation of short comedic forms of writing across English, Italian and Serbian. The similarities and differences in their approaches are used as a springboard for analysing how subjectivity informs and infuses the translation process. Following the work of Bhaba (1994), Braidotti (2011), Chiaro (2010), Palmieri (2018) and others, the author-translators uncover the importance of humour to multicultural, multi-lingual, hybrid and in-between identities. Through the collaborative practice of their writing and self-translation, they discover that humour functions as a drawbridge between languages, cultures and national identities: sometimes meeting, and sometimes not.
Keywords: self-translation, humour, in-between-ness, hybridity, creative writing, multiculturalism
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Defining self-translation
- 3.Self-translation and humour
- 4.The negotiated self in humour translation
- 5.Humour, third space and translation as nomadic practice
- 6.The incongruous self and the familiar stranger
- 7.Conclusion
References
References (22)
Attardo, Salvatore and Raskin, Victor. (1991). Script theory revis(it)ed: joke similarity and joke representation model. Humor, 4: 3–4. 293–347.
Benjamin, Walter. (2002). The Arcades Project. Translation: Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Bolt, Barbara A. (2006). A Non-Standard Deviation: Handlability, Praxical Knowledge and Practice Led Research. Speculation and Innovation: applying practice led research in the Creative Industries, ed. by Faculty of Creative Industries, vol. 6, 1–15. Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology.
Braidotti, Rosi. (2011). Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti. New York: Columbia University Press.
. (2010). Translation and Humour, Humour and Translation. Translation, Humour and Literature: Translation and Humour. In Delia Chiaro (Ed.), Vol. 1. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Cordingley, Anthony. (Ed.) (2013). Self-Translation: Brokering Originality in Hybrid Culture. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Dore, Margherita. (2019). Humour in Audiovisual Translation: Theories and Application, New York and London: Routledge.
Freud, Sigmund. (1919). “The Uncanny”. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XVII (1917–1919), ed. by Sigmund Freud. London: Vintage. 217–256.
Hokenson, Jan W. and Munson, Marcella. (2007). The Bilingual Text: History and Theory of Literary Self Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Manninen, Sandra, Tuominen, Lauri, Dunbar, Robin I., Karjalainen, Tomi, Hirvonen, Jussi, Arponen, Eveliina, Hari, Riitta, Jääskeläinen, Iiro P., Sams, Mikko and Lauri Nummenmaa, Laura. (2017). Social Laughter Triggers Endogenous Opioid Release in Humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 37(25): 61215–6131.
McKeown, Gary. (2016). Laughter and Humour as Conversational Mind-Reading Displays. In 18th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 317–328). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science). Springer.
Palmieri, Giacinto. (2017). “Oral self-translation of stand-up comedy and its (mental) text: a theoretical model”. Humor – International Journal of Humor Research, 30(2): 193–210.
. (2018). Self-translation and orality: the case of bilingual stand-up comedy. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 26(3): 1–13.