Linguistic and ideological-cultural aspects in the translation of humour. A case of study: the comics ‘Agrippine’

Alessandra Rollo

doi:10.6035/MonTI.2017.9.7

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Published: Feb 9, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2017.9.7

Keywords:

humour, comics, translation strategies, slang, cultural and ideological connotations

Alessandra Rollo

Università di Salento

Abstract

Resting on an intersection between linguistic manipulation and the sociocultural roots of a community, humour is generally considered to be untranslatable, as an element of interlinguistic and intercultural inequivalence. This paper is especially concerned with the translation of humour in a composite and multisemiotic text such as comics, in which both verbal and non-verbal components blend in a coherent language. Our analysis will be focused on a varied selection of examples from Claire Bretécheter’s comics series Agrippine, whose humorous charge is based on the use of a slang which is partially true, partially invented and on situations grounded in a specific sociocultural and ideological context. We will investigate some mains issues due to the presence of humour (verbal, lingua-cultural and visual) in comics, as well as the translation strategies which can be adopted in the transfer from French into Italian, in order to maintain the humorous effect of the source text.

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How to Cite

Rollo, A. (2018). Linguistic and ideological-cultural aspects in the translation of humour. A case of study: the comics ‘Agrippine’. MonTI. Monographs in Translation and Interpreting, (9), 181–218. https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2017.9.7

Issue

No. 9 (2017): The Translation of Humour

Section

Articles

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Author Biography

Alessandra Rollo, Università di Salento

Alessandra Rollo is a researcher and lecturer in French language and translation at the University of Salento. In 2005 she received her Ph.D. in French Linguistics from the University of Salento. In 2007 she attended a Distance Specialization Course in “Specialized economic, banking and financial translation”. Her main research interests are in the areas of: Cognitive Linguistics and its implications in the domains of pragmatics and translation; specialized translation (mainly economic and audiovisual fields). She has participated in various national and international conferences. She has published three volumes (La Linguistica Cognitiva: dalle teorie alla grammatica, 2004, Regards sur le français contemporain, 2009, Bande dessinée et jeux de mots. Enjeux et stratégies traductives dans la traduction italienne d’‘Astérix’, 2012), besides several articles on French language and linguistics.

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Albums analyses

Bretécher, Claire. (2008) Agrippine. Paris : Dargaud (éditions Bretécher 1988).

Bretécher, Claire. (2008) Les combats d’Agrippine. Paris : Dargaud (éditions Bretécher 1993).

Bretécher, Claire. (2009) Agrippine déconfite. Paris : Dargaud. Bretécher, Claire. (1990)

Agrippina (trad. Nicoletta Pardi). Milano : Bompiani.

Bretécher, Claire. (2011) Le battaglie di Agrippina + Agrippina sbaragliata (trad. Irene Bozzeda). Bologna : Comma 22.

Dictionnaires en ligne

http://atilf.atilf.fr/

http://www.lexilogos.com/argot.htm

Sitographie

http://www.clairebretecher.com/

http://www.edt.it/claire-bretecher-disegno-e-ironia/