Can Money Bring Happiness

July 2010, Volume 8, No.7 (Serial No.82)

US-China Foreign Language, ISSN1539-8080, USA

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres
Sara Laviosa
(English Language and Translation, University of Bari (Aldo Moro), Bari 70125, Italy)

Abstract: In Western societies, humour appears in many different communicative events, and is variedly expressed through words, pictures, sounds and body language. Humour is peculiar in that it is creative, compelling and culture-specific, and produces effects that go beyond the “humour feeling” aroused by a witty remark or a funny situation. Moreover, humour appreciation does not always go hand in hand with the ability to (re)produce it successfully (Vandaele, 2002, p. 150; p. 169). These are arguably some of the reasons why humour presents an exciting challenge to translation, whatever its position may be on the acceptability-adequacy continuum in the target language (Toury, 1995). After introducing the conceptual structure of humour put forward by Jeroen Vandale (2002), the author will firstly analyse a sample of multi-modal, non-literary texts produced either in England or Italy, as an exercise in decoding the “multiple” meaning of humour in the English/Italian translation classroom (Vandaele, 2002, p. 156). The author will then examine the “convergent similarity” between the way humour is expressed in Jeanette Winterson’s novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and the Italian translation Non ci sono solo le arance (There Are Not Only Oranges) by Maria Ludovica Petta (Chesterman, 2007). In this translation-oriented case study, the author compares the (re)encoding of humour across languages and cultures with a view to heighten translation students’ awareness of the linguistic constraints and options involved in reproducing humour. It is suggested that the insights gained by the contextualised analysis of humour across genres and languages provide trainee translators with an increased awareness of the specific meaning of

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