Transcreating humour for (re)dubbing into Arabic
Open Access
- 11 October 2022
- journal article
- Published by Estonian Literary Museum Scholarly Press in The European Journal of Humour Research
- Vol. 10 (3), 151-167
- https://doi.org/10.7592/ejhr.2022.10.3.681
Abstract
The transfer of humorous elements in audio-visual texts is a challenging task as verbal expressions heavily rely on witty wordplay and are visually bound. To overcome such a challenge, the translator has to have two particular skills: creativity and a thorough understanding of the context and/or intended meanings. This paper aims at investigating the realisation of humour in dubbing animation vis-à-vis register variation and creativity by comparing the Egyptian dub with the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) re-dub of Disney’s Monster’s Inc. Drawing on House’s (2015) translation quality assessment model, the data analysis reveals that resorting to colloquialism as a covert translation strategy provided a functionally adequate, nuanced leeway for the translator to capture the essence situational humour of the source text by relying on the on-screen visuals. Therefore, the translator quasi-assumes the role of an author to communicate interpersonal meanings as effectively and humorously as possible. Meanwhile, resorting to the standard variation as an overt translation strategy significantly deflated and sacrificed verbal humour due to the translator’s literal style and Al-Jazeera’s ideological orientation that shuns functional equivalence for the sake of linguistic homogenisation.Keywords
This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
- Multimodally expressed humour shaping Scottishness in tourist postcardsJournal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 2011
- Naturalness in the Spanish Dubbing Language: a Case of Not-so-close Friends1Meta : Journal Des Traducteursmeta : / Translators’ Journal, 2009
- Verbally expressed humor and translationPublished by Walter de Gruyter GmbH ,2008
- Translations, Transcreations and Transrepresentations of India in the Italian MediaMeta : Journal Des Traducteursmeta : / Translators’ Journal, 2008
- Appraising Dubbed ConversationThe Translator, 2007
- Translation Quality Assessment. Strategies, Parametres and ProceduresMeta : Journal Des Traducteursmeta : / Translators’ Journal, 2002
- Translation Quality Assessment: Linguistic Description versus Social EvaluationMeta : Journal Des Traducteursmeta : / Translators’ Journal, 2002
- Textual constraints and the translator’s creativity in dubbingPublished by John Benjamins Publishing Company ,1998
- From 'Good' to 'Functionally Appropriate': Assessing Translation QualityCurrent Issues In Language and Society, 1997
- Translating non-verbal information in dubbingPublished by John Benjamins Publishing Company ,1997