Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

In Cuba, the literary translation of humour in works of science fiction or fantasy rarely occurs, so readers must turn to foreign editions that have a different cultural background and therefore a different sense of humour. That is why this study focuses on the need of translating English humour for...

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Main Author: Jordan Enriquez, Rosa Margarita
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52633/
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author Jordan Enriquez, Rosa Margarita
author_facet Jordan Enriquez, Rosa Margarita
author_sort Jordan Enriquez, Rosa Margarita
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description In Cuba, the literary translation of humour in works of science fiction or fantasy rarely occurs, so readers must turn to foreign editions that have a different cultural background and therefore a different sense of humour. That is why this study focuses on the need of translating English humour for a Cuban context. The hypothesis is that English humour presents culture-bound elements unintelligible for a Cuban audience and that a combination of translation strategies and extensive knowledge of the two cultures is the key for its successful translation. The aim of this research is to identify the main obstacles for the intercultural translation of English humour and the strategies to recreate it in a Cuban context. This research includes an exploration of both humour variants and a case analysis of culture-bound jokes from the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The cultural problems identified include culture-specific concepts, intertextuality, slang, and understatement. The most efficient strategies to solve them were cultural substitution, explicitation and loan words. The present study can raise intercultural awareness and highlight the key role of translators as cultural mediators.
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spelling nottingham-526332025-02-28T14:11:11Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52633/ Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy Jordan Enriquez, Rosa Margarita In Cuba, the literary translation of humour in works of science fiction or fantasy rarely occurs, so readers must turn to foreign editions that have a different cultural background and therefore a different sense of humour. That is why this study focuses on the need of translating English humour for a Cuban context. The hypothesis is that English humour presents culture-bound elements unintelligible for a Cuban audience and that a combination of translation strategies and extensive knowledge of the two cultures is the key for its successful translation. The aim of this research is to identify the main obstacles for the intercultural translation of English humour and the strategies to recreate it in a Cuban context. This research includes an exploration of both humour variants and a case analysis of culture-bound jokes from the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The cultural problems identified include culture-specific concepts, intertextuality, slang, and understatement. The most efficient strategies to solve them were cultural substitution, explicitation and loan words. The present study can raise intercultural awareness and highlight the key role of translators as cultural mediators. 2018-10-15 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52633/1/ROSA%20MARGARITA%20JORD%C3%81N%20ENR%C3%8DQUEZ%20%284283990%29.%20Corrected%20Version.pdf Jordan Enriquez, Rosa Margarita (2018) Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. MA(Res) thesis, University of Nottingham. literary translation humor translation English humor Cuban humour cultural difficulties translation strategies
spellingShingle literary translation
humor translation
English humor
Cuban humour
cultural difficulties
translation strategies
Jordan Enriquez, Rosa Margarita
Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
title Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
title_full Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
title_fullStr Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
title_full_unstemmed Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
title_short Don't panic! Cultural difficulties in the translation of English humour into Spanish for a Cuban context: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
title_sort don't panic! cultural difficulties in the translation of english humour into spanish for a cuban context: the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
topic literary translation
humor translation
English humor
Cuban humour
cultural difficulties
translation strategies
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52633/