- Flat 7 Dickens House
150 Church Road
London
SE19 2NT - +447851374031
Giacinto Palmieri
London Metropolitan University, Languages (Translation), Faculty Member
- Translation, Self-translation, Education, Cultural Translation, Humour Studies, Translation Studies/AVT for foreign-language learning, and 19 moreZabalbeascoa, Humour, Stand Up Comedy, Translation of Humour, Attardo, Humor Studies, Translation Studies, John Morreall, Humor, Jokes, Benign Violation Theory, Jorge Luis Borges, Richard Wagner, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, Victor Pelevin, Bahktin, Susan Bassnett, and Humor and Translation/Interpretingedit
- Giacinto studied Philosophy in his native Milan and later for an MA at Birkbeck, with a dissertation in Philosophy of... moreGiacinto studied Philosophy in his native Milan and later for an MA at Birkbeck, with a dissertation in Philosophy of Language. In parallel with a career in IT, he then started to perform as a stand-up comedian, initially using as his principal source of humour the incongruities he observed, as an outsider, in the English language and culture. In 2010 Giacinto was a finalist in the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition. He also took part to five editions of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, three of which with a one hour solo show.
In 2010 Giacinto joined the association ComedySubs, dedicated to provide Italian subtitles for stand-up comedy shows available in English on DVD. Originally the subtitles were made available for free for download from the association’s website, in order to be visualised along with the DVD, which needed to be bought separately. Although not a professional organisation, ComedySubs was known for the professional quality of their subtitles. This experience kindled his desire to combine an interest in humour with an interest in language by exploring questions of humour translation.
The subject of Giacinto's study is the phenomenon of stand-up comedians performing/translating in more than one language, with a particular focus on English and Italian. The idea originated from his personal experience as a London-based Italian who has been performing comedy for six years, both in English and in Italian; this allowed Giacinto direct contact with other bilingual comedians as well as with an audience consisting of both the Italian diaspora and the general British public. Practice in this area strongly suggests that comedic self-translation constitutes an excellent testbed for exploring issues of identity or tensions between cultural specificity/universality in humour and host/immigrant communities; indeed, important questions in this field can be supported by insights from linguistics, ethnography, translation, performance and humour studies.
Giacinto's research is funded by the AHRC via the TECHNE partnership.edit
Research Interests:
Umorismo e identità: il caso di una serata comica italiana a Londra Per chi vive l'esperienza dell'immigrazione o della diaspora, l'esigenza di negoziare la propria identità in relazione con quella del paese di arrivo, o del gruppo di... more
Umorismo e identità: il caso di una serata comica italiana a Londra Per chi vive l'esperienza dell'immigrazione o della diaspora, l'esigenza di negoziare la propria identità in relazione con quella del paese di arrivo, o del gruppo di maggioranza, si presenta spesso nei toni drammatici della dicotomia tra assimilazione e difesa delle radici. È proprio, tuttavia, nella sua capacità di denunciare la falsità di questa dicotomia che l'umorismo può esercitare una funzione importante, in particolare disvelando la natura artificiale e convenzionale dei termini della scelta. Un esempio ci viene offerto, ovviamente, dalla grande tradizione umoristica della diaspora ebraica. Il comico ebreo inglese Ivor Dembina racconta, per esempio, la seguente barzelletta, nel corso del suo spettacolo Old Jewish Jokes. Due ebrei di New York passano di fronte ad una chiesa, sul portone della quale un cartello annuncia: "Mille dollari a chi si converte". Uno dei due amici dice all'altro: "Senti, mi spiace, ma io sono pieno di debiti, ho proprio bisogno di quei mille dollari… vado e mi converto". Quando esce dalla chiesa, l'amico gli chiede: "Allora, ti hanno dato i mille dollari?". E lui: "Voi ebrei pensate sempre ai soldi". Di cosa stiamo, quando ridiamo a questa barzelletta? Ad un primo, superficiale livello ridiamo dei pregiudizi tradizionalmente associati agli ebrei. Ad un secondo livello, però, ridiamo a vedere i confini che delimitano e definiscono le identità disvelati nella loro porosità, artificialità e convenzionalità: bastano mille dollari e una professione di fede per fare propri un intero bagaglio di pregiudizi, come quegli aspiranti nobili che acquistano un castello con i ritratti degli antenati già inclusi. Certo,si tratta di un'esagerazione comica, ma in quanto tale è anche rivelativa di ciò che esagera. Non a caso, il filosofo Judith Butler (1999), a cui dobbiamo il più sistematico tentativo di denunciare la natura artificiale dell'identità di genere, ha scritto: "there is a subversive laughter in the pastiche-effect of parodic practices in which the original, the authentic and the real are themselves constituted as effects" ["c'è una risata sovversiva nell'effetto-pastiche delle pratiche parodistiche, nel quale l'originale, l'autentico e il reale sono essi stessi presentati come effetti", traduzione mia] (1999:146). Nella mia esperienza personale di comico italiano in Gran Bretagna, ho ricercato proprio quest'effetto parodistico quando ho intitolato il mio spettacolo per l'edizione 2010 del Fringe Festival di Edimburgo "Giacinto Palmieri is trying to be Italian" ["Giacinto Palmieri sta cercando di essere italiano"], giocando sull'idea che non solo la mia identità nazionale nativa (quindi, presunta essenziale) potesse richiedere uno sforzo, ma anche e soprattutto che questo sforzo potesse fallire. Lo stesso gioco parodistico può far uso, invece che della problematizzazione di quello che si assume sia ovvio e naturale, della sua esagerazione. Per usare un altro esempio preso dalla mia stessa esperienza, in genere riconosco "l'elefante nella stanza" rappresentato dal mio forte accento italiano raccontando di essermi iscritto una volta ad un corso di recitazione, durante il quale il mio accento italiano sarebbe stato criticato come un'esagerazione attoriale. Di nuovo, è proprio l'autentico e il reale a venire rivelati umoristicamente nella la loro artificialità. Un esempio particolarmente interessate e rivelativo del ruolo che l'umorismo può giocare nella negoziazione dell'identità ci viene offerto dall'esperienza del Puma Londinese, una serata comica bilingue (i comici italiani si esibivano in italiano, quelli non-italiani in inglese) fondata da Romina Puma (da cui il nome), messa in scena a scadenza bisettimanale in vari locali di Londra dal 2012 al 2016. Ho avuto la fortuna di partecipare regolarmente a quest'esperienza quasi dai suoi inizi e fino alla sua conclusione, quindi le presenti riflessioni si basano in buona parte su quanto ho osservato in prima persona nel corso di
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This paper discusses Christie Davies' recommendation for seriousness in the investigation of jokes and contrasts it with several instances of humorous discourse in his own writings. After arguing that a taste for both the production and... more
This paper discusses Christie Davies' recommendation for seriousness in the investigation of jokes and contrasts it with several instances of humorous discourse in his own writings. After arguing that a taste for both the production and the appreciation of humour played an important role in Davies' research, and that humor can be used productively in humour research, the article raises the question of whether the need for a separation between humour as a subject of study and as a style of discourse about it has not been overstated in humour studies.
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IT La riflessione teorica sull'umorismo ha finora teso a privilegiarne la capacità di fornire uno spazio per la sospensione temporanea (il carnevalesco di Bakhtin) ed innocua (la teoria della violazione benigna di McGraw e Warren) delle... more
IT
La riflessione teorica sull'umorismo ha finora teso a privilegiarne la capacità di fornire uno spazio per la sospensione temporanea (il carnevalesco di Bakhtin) ed innocua (la teoria della violazione benigna di McGraw e Warren) delle regole altrove vigenti. Con il presente articolo, si vuole suggerire come questo importante riconoscimento vada completato con il riconoscimento complementare di come tale spazio di sospensione sia esso stesso soggetto a regole, le violazioni delle quali (non essendo oggetto esse stelle della sospensione) non possono che venire percepite come maligne. Come caso esemplare, viene discusso l'episodio in cui una battuta del comico italiano Luca Cupani al Comedy Store di Londra venne denunciata come razzista dal compère della serata. L'analisi degli agenti in gioco (il compère, il pubblico, il comico, l'istituzione Comedy Store) viene offerta come esempio dell'importanza delle relazioni di potere nell'imposizione delle regole del discorso comico. In conclusione, si suggerisce che l'analisi di queste relazioni, e delle regole tramite la cui imposizione si costituiscono, rappresenti un programma di ricerca molto promettente per il futuro degli studi sull'umorismo. Parole Chiave: Umorismo, stand-up, razzismo, carnevalesco, violazioni benigne
EN
The theoretical investigation of humour has so far focused on its capacity to offer a space where the rules that otherwise apply are suspended, both temporally (like in Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque) and innocuously (like in McGraw and Warren's Benign Violation Theory). The present article suggests that the recognition of this important role played by humour needs to be complemented by the recognition of how humour is itself governed by its own rules, the violation of which-as they are not themselves suspended-can only be perceived as malign. As a case study, the article then moves to discussing what happened when a joke from Italian comedian Luca Cupani was denounced as racist by the MC during a competition at London's Comedy Store. The analysis of the various agents at play (the MC, the audience, the comedian, the institution Comedy Store) is then proposed as an example of the important role played by power relations in the imposition of the rules of comic discourse. In conclusion, this article suggests the future analysis of these power relations, and of the rules through the imposition of which they are defined, as a promising avenue of future research for the field of humour studies.
La riflessione teorica sull'umorismo ha finora teso a privilegiarne la capacità di fornire uno spazio per la sospensione temporanea (il carnevalesco di Bakhtin) ed innocua (la teoria della violazione benigna di McGraw e Warren) delle regole altrove vigenti. Con il presente articolo, si vuole suggerire come questo importante riconoscimento vada completato con il riconoscimento complementare di come tale spazio di sospensione sia esso stesso soggetto a regole, le violazioni delle quali (non essendo oggetto esse stelle della sospensione) non possono che venire percepite come maligne. Come caso esemplare, viene discusso l'episodio in cui una battuta del comico italiano Luca Cupani al Comedy Store di Londra venne denunciata come razzista dal compère della serata. L'analisi degli agenti in gioco (il compère, il pubblico, il comico, l'istituzione Comedy Store) viene offerta come esempio dell'importanza delle relazioni di potere nell'imposizione delle regole del discorso comico. In conclusione, si suggerisce che l'analisi di queste relazioni, e delle regole tramite la cui imposizione si costituiscono, rappresenti un programma di ricerca molto promettente per il futuro degli studi sull'umorismo. Parole Chiave: Umorismo, stand-up, razzismo, carnevalesco, violazioni benigne
EN
The theoretical investigation of humour has so far focused on its capacity to offer a space where the rules that otherwise apply are suspended, both temporally (like in Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque) and innocuously (like in McGraw and Warren's Benign Violation Theory). The present article suggests that the recognition of this important role played by humour needs to be complemented by the recognition of how humour is itself governed by its own rules, the violation of which-as they are not themselves suspended-can only be perceived as malign. As a case study, the article then moves to discussing what happened when a joke from Italian comedian Luca Cupani was denounced as racist by the MC during a competition at London's Comedy Store. The analysis of the various agents at play (the MC, the audience, the comedian, the institution Comedy Store) is then proposed as an example of the important role played by power relations in the imposition of the rules of comic discourse. In conclusion, this article suggests the future analysis of these power relations, and of the rules through the imposition of which they are defined, as a promising avenue of future research for the field of humour studies.
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Research Interests:
Self-translation and orality have independently received much attention in translation studies, but their intersection has been virtually ignored. An opportunity to fill this gap is offered by the case of stand-up comedians who perform in... more
Self-translation and orality have independently received much attention in translation studies, but their intersection has been virtually ignored. An opportunity to fill this gap is offered by the case of stand-up comedians who perform in more than one language. Contrary to theories in which the freedom of the self-translator is viewed in purely negative terms, the reflections of J.L. Borges suggest that self-translation represents a means of making the text fluid. This fluidity is also recognised as a distinguishing mark of oral communication, as is shown by the case of stand-up comedy. Oral self-translation, then, grants its (unwritten) text some sort of double fluidity. This hypothesis is corroborated through interviews with bilingual comedians on the issue of the directionality of their translation. The problematic nature of this directionality confirms that, in orally self-translated stand-up comedy, variation and repetition of content can be described as a continuum across time and languages.
Research Interests: Translation Studies, Comedy, Humor, Orality-Literacy Studies, Oral Traditions, and 12 moreJorge Luis Borges, Stand Up Comedy, Self-translation, Commedia dell'arte, Orality, Humor Studies, Translation, Humour Studies, Humour, Improvisational Comedy, Stand-Up Comedy, Stand Up Comedy Techniques, and Borges
This paper investigates the phenomenon of stand-up comedians performing in more than one language, which poses the question of whether and how they translate their material. Past research on stand-up comedy underlines its conversational... more
This paper investigates the phenomenon of stand-up comedians performing in more than one language, which poses the question of whether and how they translate their material. Past research on stand-up comedy underlines its conversational nature, sometimes at the expense of recognizing its content. Empirical evidence collected from interviews with bilingual stand-up comedians, on the other hand, suggests that they perform a form of oral self-translation, which implies a tertium comparationis, the transfer of content. The notion of mental text, borrowed from ethnography, is then productively used to define this content. As is then suggested, two types of memory, namely declarative and procedural, are involved in the memorization of this mental text. The declarative part accounts for what is repeatable across performances and is the part involved in conscious translation; its minimal content is identified in the punch lines. The procedural part accounts for variation, improvisation and interaction. A model of the oral-self translation process of stand-up is then proposed. I conclude that re-focusing on the (mental) text of stand-up comedy can offer a better understanding of its translation, which in turn can contribute to a better understanding of humor in a multilingual and multicultural context in future research.
Research Interests:
This paper investigates the phenomenon of stand-up comedians performing in more than one language, which poses the question of whether and how they translate their material. Past research on stand-up comedy underlines its conversational... more
This paper investigates the phenomenon of stand-up comedians performing in more than one language, which poses the question of whether and how they translate their material. Past research on stand-up comedy underlines its conversational nature, sometimes at the expense of recognizing its content. Empirical evidence collected from interviews with bilingual stand-up comedians, on the other hand, suggests that they perform a form of oral self-translation, which implies a tertium comparationis, the transfer of content. The notion of mental text, borrowed from ethnography, is then productively used to define this content. As is then suggested, two types of memory, namely declarative and procedural, are involved in the memorization of this mental text. The declarative part accounts for what is repeatable across performances and is the part involved in conscious translation; its minimal content is identified in the punch lines. The procedural part accounts for variation, improvisation and interaction. A model of the oral-self translation process of stand-up is then proposed. I conclude that re-focusing on the (mental) text of stand-up comedy can offer a better understanding of its translation, which in turn can contribute to a better understanding of humor in a multilingual and multicultural context in future research.
Research Interests:
This paper investigates the phenomenon of stand-up comedians performing in more than one language, which poses the question of whether and how they translate their material. Past research on stand-up comedy underlines its conversational... more
This paper investigates the phenomenon of stand-up comedians performing in more than one language, which poses the question of whether and how they translate their material. Past research on stand-up comedy underlines its conversational nature, sometimes at the expense of recognising its content. Empirical evidence collected from interviews with bilingual stand-up comedians, on the other hand, suggests that they perform a form of oral self-translation, which implies a tertium comparationis, the transfer of content. The notion of mental text, borrowed from ethnography, is then productively used to define this content. As is then suggested, two types of memory, namely declarative and procedural, are involved in the memorisation of this mental text. The declarative part accounts for what is repeatable across performances and is the part involved in conscious translation; its minimal content is identified in the punch lines. The procedural part accounts for variation, improvisation and interaction. A model of the oral-self translation process of stand-up is then proposed. I conclude that re-focusing on the (mental) text of stand-up comedy can offer a better understanding of its translation, which in turn can contribute to a better understanding of humour in a multilingual and multicultural context in future research.
Research Interests: Translation Studies, Humor (Psychology), Stand Up Comedy, Self-translation, Orality, and 8 moreTranslation, Humour Studies, Improvisational Comedy, Stand-Up Comedy, Self Translation, Orality Orature Folklore Verbal Art, Orality and Literacy, Meditation and Memory, Medieval Reading, Translation of Humour, and Orality and Writing
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The present study investigates, from the point of view of translation, the phenomenon of standup comedians performing in more than one language, with a specific focus on English and Italian, and on Italian comedians performing in London.... more
The present study investigates, from the point of view of translation, the phenomenon of standup
comedians performing in more than one language, with a specific focus on English and
Italian, and on Italian comedians performing in London. This offers the opportunity to address
questions of humour translatability, to observe how performing in a native, as opposed to a
second, language impacts performance, and to consider the role that humour and translation
can play in situations of diaspora.
For these purposes, a new type of translation needs to be conceptualised for it to be recognised
as taking place in bilingual comedy. In doing this, the starting point is the recognition that standup
comedy represents a form of oral communication, in which the presence of a written text
cannot be assumed. The type of translation putatively involved in bilingual stand-up comedy is
thus defined as “oral self-translation”. The notion of “mental text”, borrowed from the
ethnographer Honko (1996), is proposed as the source and target text of this type of translation.
The concepts of declarative and procedural memories are then deployed to offer a theoretical
model for the content of this mental text.
These challenges call for a phenomenological approach as the main method of this study, in
which the experience of a sample of ten bilingual stand-up comedians is investigated by means
of in-depth semi-structured interviews. The researcher’s own experience in performing stand-up
comedy in both Italian and English is also reflexively interrogated and compared with the
participants’ experiences, as collected in the interviews.
The results extrapolated from this data suggest that translation does occur in bilingual comedy
and that its comic efficacy is considered very satisfactory by the performers themselves, in
accordance with their interpretation of the audience’s reaction. This success seems to be
correlated with the special degree of freedom enjoyed by the self-translating comedian. The
choice of language, moreover, seems to be associated with different performing styles and
different levels of emotional involvement from the comedian. In its interaction between
performers and audience, oral self-translation of stand-up comedy is shown to partake in the
process of “identity negotiation” (Swann 1987), particularly when this interaction occurs
between members of a diaspora and members of the host community.
comedians performing in more than one language, with a specific focus on English and
Italian, and on Italian comedians performing in London. This offers the opportunity to address
questions of humour translatability, to observe how performing in a native, as opposed to a
second, language impacts performance, and to consider the role that humour and translation
can play in situations of diaspora.
For these purposes, a new type of translation needs to be conceptualised for it to be recognised
as taking place in bilingual comedy. In doing this, the starting point is the recognition that standup
comedy represents a form of oral communication, in which the presence of a written text
cannot be assumed. The type of translation putatively involved in bilingual stand-up comedy is
thus defined as “oral self-translation”. The notion of “mental text”, borrowed from the
ethnographer Honko (1996), is proposed as the source and target text of this type of translation.
The concepts of declarative and procedural memories are then deployed to offer a theoretical
model for the content of this mental text.
These challenges call for a phenomenological approach as the main method of this study, in
which the experience of a sample of ten bilingual stand-up comedians is investigated by means
of in-depth semi-structured interviews. The researcher’s own experience in performing stand-up
comedy in both Italian and English is also reflexively interrogated and compared with the
participants’ experiences, as collected in the interviews.
The results extrapolated from this data suggest that translation does occur in bilingual comedy
and that its comic efficacy is considered very satisfactory by the performers themselves, in
accordance with their interpretation of the audience’s reaction. This success seems to be
correlated with the special degree of freedom enjoyed by the self-translating comedian. The
choice of language, moreover, seems to be associated with different performing styles and
different levels of emotional involvement from the comedian. In its interaction between
performers and audience, oral self-translation of stand-up comedy is shown to partake in the
process of “identity negotiation” (Swann 1987), particularly when this interaction occurs
between members of a diaspora and members of the host community.
Research Interests: Translation Studies, Memory (Cognitive Psychology), Humor psychology, Humor (Psychology), Humor, and 21 moreOrality-Literacy Studies, Translation theory, Oral history, Oral Traditions, Memory Studies, Humor/Satire, Self-translation, Philosophy of Humor, Translation and Interpretation, Orality, Humor Studies, Translation, Humor and Translation/Interpreting, Memory, Oral History and Memory, Oral literature, Sociology Humor Laughter Theory Review, English Translation, Traducción Del Humor, General Theory of Verbal Humor, and Linguistics- humor research
This paper focuses on the bilingual (English and Italian) comedy club Il Puma Londinese / The London Puma, which run in London from 2012 to 2016, where I was a regular performer. This experience offered a precious opportunity to observe... more
This paper focuses on the bilingual (English and Italian) comedy club Il Puma Londinese / The London Puma, which run in London from 2012 to 2016, where I was a regular performer. This experience offered a precious opportunity to observe the role that humour can play in the definition of ingroup / outgroup relationships between a diaspora community and a host community, which can be described according to the model of humour functions proposed by W.H. Martineau. At the same time, this experience also allowed for the observation of the sometimes-conflictual exchange of expectations and projections of national and linguistic identity between audience and performers, which can be described according to W.B. Swann’s theory of identity negotiation. In other cases, national and linguistic identity was explicitly parodied by the comedians, in what can be seen as an instance of the role that, according to J. Butler, mockery and parody can play in unmasking the performative nature of identity. All these theoretical approaches are applied in this paper to specific instances of performance and audience interactions, collected by me during the years I spent as a participant observer of this unique experience.
Research Interests:
Since a number of prospective authors asked for an extension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we thought to extend the deadline to everyone else who may still be interested in contributing to this issue. Please see the updated timeline... more
Since a number of prospective authors asked for an extension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we thought to extend the deadline to everyone else who may still be interested in contributing to this issue. Please see the updated timeline below.
The volume aims to explore the self-translation of humour. Generally speaking, self-translation is described as a type of translation in which the translators happen to be the same people as the authors of the source text. It represents an atypical case which, as such, was somewhat neglected by Translation Studies scholars. More recently, however, self-translation has attracted a good deal of attention, as demonstrated by Gentes’s (2020) Call for Papers
Tentative title: Humour and Self-Translation
Editors: Margherita Dore and Giacinto Palmieri
The volume aims to explore the self-translation of humour. Generally speaking, self-translation is described as a type of translation in which the translators happen to be the same people as the authors of the source text. It represents an atypical case which, as such, was somewhat neglected by Translation Studies scholars. More recently, however, self-translation has attracted a good deal of attention, as demonstrated by Gentes’s (2020) 212-page bibliography on this topic. Notwithstanding this, the self-translation of humour appears to be a remarkable blind spot. A text search for the word “humour” in the aforementioned bibliography returns only one match (Noonan 2013), searching for “humor” returns one more (Palmieri 2017a), while “comedy” returns three (Palmieri 2017a; Palmieri 2017b; Sebellin 2009; Palmieri 2018) and “comic” returns only one (Cohn 1961).
Another aspect that makes the research gap on humour self-translation so remarkable is that the translation of humour in general has also been the object of much attention, not least because it offers a wide range of challenges, spanning from dealing with wordplay to the importance of culture-specific references (Chiaro 1992, 2005; Zabalbeascoa 1996; Attardo 2002; Dore 2019). Moreover, the success or failure in humour translation is often constrained by the translation mode used (cf. for instance Zabalbascoa 1994; Dore 2019; Dore, forthcoming). Interestingly, many authors who have written on self-translation (e.g. Fitch 1988; Eco 2013) have stressed that self-translators enjoy a level of freedom greater than that allowed to allographic translators. Similarly, the challenging nature of humour translation makes the case of self-translation the more interesting and intriguing, as it often requires exercising great freedom in adapting the humours content to the target audience (as discussed, with reference to stand-up comedy, in Palmieri 2018). Therefore, observing specific cases of humour self-translation is likely to unveil specific characteristics of this process in different context (cf. e.g. Palmieri 2018) and of humour translation in general.
It is envisaged that the exploration of this fascinating phenomenon will further contribute to enhance the ongoing debate on the (un)translatability of humour (Delabastita 1996; 1997; Chiaro 2000; Dore 2019). Since the self-translation of humour can potentially cover several fields of enquire and application, as well as genres, an edited book can become a particularly promising tool. With these premises in mind, we would like to launch a Call for Papers to encourage scholars to give a contribution to mapping this problem space, by identifying instances of humour self-translation in their specific areas of competence, both in terms of language(s) and medium/ text type.
The papers will be peer-reviewed. Authors will be asked to send their contributions to both Margherita Dore (margherita.dore@uniroma1.it) and Giacinto Palmieri (g.palmieri@londonmet.ac.uk).
Timeline
NEW DEADLINE 15 July 2020 – Abstracts (300 words)
Notification of acceptance: 31/07/2020
End of January 2021 – Manuscripts of chapters (up to 8,000 words)
End of March 2021 – Feedback from editors/external readers
End of May 2021 – Final manuscripts
Length of contributions: 8.000 words
Please use British spelling.
Refernces
Attardo, Salvatore (2002) ‘Translation and Humour: An Approach Based on the General Theory of Verbal Humour’, The Translator 8(2): 173-194.
Chiaro, Delia (1992) The Language of Jokes. Analysing Verbal Play, London and New York, Routledge.
Chiaro, Delia (2000) ‘"Servizio completo"? On the (un)translatability of puns on screen’. In Bollettieri Bosinelli, R. M., Heiss, C., Soffritti, M. and Bernardini, S. (eds.) La traduzione multimediale: Quale traduzione per quale testo?, Bologna: CLUEB, 27-
42.
Chiaro, Delia (2004) ‘Investigating the perception of translated Verbally Expressed Humour on Italian TV’, ESP Across Cultures, 1: 35-52.
Chiaro, Delia (2005) ‘Foreword: Verbally Expressed Humour and Translation: An overview of a neglected field’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18 (2): 135–145.
Cohn, Ruby (1961) ‘Samuel Beckett Self–Translator’, PMLA 76: 613–621.
Delabastita, Dirk (1996) ‘Introduction’, The Translator 2(2): 127-139.
Delabastita, Dirk (1997) ‘Introduction’. In D. Delabastita (ed.) Traductio: Essays on Punning and Translation. Special Issue of Target 12(1):161-166.
Dore, Margherita (2019) Humour in Audiovisual Translation. Theories and Applications. New York and London: Routledge.
Dore, Margherita (Forthcoming, ed.) Humour Translation in the Age of Multimedia. New York and London: Routledge.
Eco, Umberto (2013) ‘Come se si scrivessero due libri diversi [As if you wrote two different books]’ In A. Ceccherelli, G. E. Imposti, & M. Perotto (eds.), Autotraduzione e riscrittura [Self-translation and rewriting], Bologna: Bononia University Press, 25–30.
Fitch, Brian T. (1988) Beckett and Babel: an investigation into the status of the bilingual work. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gentes, Eva (2020) Bibliography: autotraduzione/autotraducción/self-translation. URL https://app.box.com/s/iux0u31earrvgi5n3l32jev65i5a593e
Noonan, Will. 2013. ‘Self-translation, Self-reflection, Self-derision: Samuel Beckett’s Bilingual Humour’. In A. Cordingley (ed.), Self-Translation: Brokering Originality in Hybrid Culture. London: Continuum, 159–176
Palmieri, Giacinto (2017a) ‘Oral self-translation of stand-up comedy and its (mental) text: a theoretical model”. Humor. International journal of humor studies, 30/2, 193–210. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2016-0092
Palmieri, Giacinto (2017b). “Self-translation and orality: the case of stand-up comedy”. Perspectives. Studies in translation theory and practice, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2017.1351457
Palmieri, Giacinto (2018) Oral self-translation of stand-up comedy: from the mental text to performance and interaction. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Surrey.
Sebellin, Rossana M. (2009) ‘Bilingualism and Bi-textuality: Samuel Beckett’s Double Texts’. In D. Guardamagna and R. M. Sebellin (eds.), The Tragic Comedy of Samuel Beckett “Beckett in Rome” 17–19 April 2008. Università degli Studi di Roma. Editori Laterza, 39–56.
Zabalbeascoa, Patrick (1994) ‘Factors in dubbing television comedy’, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 2 (1): 89-99.
The volume aims to explore the self-translation of humour. Generally speaking, self-translation is described as a type of translation in which the translators happen to be the same people as the authors of the source text. It represents an atypical case which, as such, was somewhat neglected by Translation Studies scholars. More recently, however, self-translation has attracted a good deal of attention, as demonstrated by Gentes’s (2020) Call for Papers
Tentative title: Humour and Self-Translation
Editors: Margherita Dore and Giacinto Palmieri
The volume aims to explore the self-translation of humour. Generally speaking, self-translation is described as a type of translation in which the translators happen to be the same people as the authors of the source text. It represents an atypical case which, as such, was somewhat neglected by Translation Studies scholars. More recently, however, self-translation has attracted a good deal of attention, as demonstrated by Gentes’s (2020) 212-page bibliography on this topic. Notwithstanding this, the self-translation of humour appears to be a remarkable blind spot. A text search for the word “humour” in the aforementioned bibliography returns only one match (Noonan 2013), searching for “humor” returns one more (Palmieri 2017a), while “comedy” returns three (Palmieri 2017a; Palmieri 2017b; Sebellin 2009; Palmieri 2018) and “comic” returns only one (Cohn 1961).
Another aspect that makes the research gap on humour self-translation so remarkable is that the translation of humour in general has also been the object of much attention, not least because it offers a wide range of challenges, spanning from dealing with wordplay to the importance of culture-specific references (Chiaro 1992, 2005; Zabalbeascoa 1996; Attardo 2002; Dore 2019). Moreover, the success or failure in humour translation is often constrained by the translation mode used (cf. for instance Zabalbascoa 1994; Dore 2019; Dore, forthcoming). Interestingly, many authors who have written on self-translation (e.g. Fitch 1988; Eco 2013) have stressed that self-translators enjoy a level of freedom greater than that allowed to allographic translators. Similarly, the challenging nature of humour translation makes the case of self-translation the more interesting and intriguing, as it often requires exercising great freedom in adapting the humours content to the target audience (as discussed, with reference to stand-up comedy, in Palmieri 2018). Therefore, observing specific cases of humour self-translation is likely to unveil specific characteristics of this process in different context (cf. e.g. Palmieri 2018) and of humour translation in general.
It is envisaged that the exploration of this fascinating phenomenon will further contribute to enhance the ongoing debate on the (un)translatability of humour (Delabastita 1996; 1997; Chiaro 2000; Dore 2019). Since the self-translation of humour can potentially cover several fields of enquire and application, as well as genres, an edited book can become a particularly promising tool. With these premises in mind, we would like to launch a Call for Papers to encourage scholars to give a contribution to mapping this problem space, by identifying instances of humour self-translation in their specific areas of competence, both in terms of language(s) and medium/ text type.
The papers will be peer-reviewed. Authors will be asked to send their contributions to both Margherita Dore (margherita.dore@uniroma1.it) and Giacinto Palmieri (g.palmieri@londonmet.ac.uk).
Timeline
NEW DEADLINE 15 July 2020 – Abstracts (300 words)
Notification of acceptance: 31/07/2020
End of January 2021 – Manuscripts of chapters (up to 8,000 words)
End of March 2021 – Feedback from editors/external readers
End of May 2021 – Final manuscripts
Length of contributions: 8.000 words
Please use British spelling.
Refernces
Attardo, Salvatore (2002) ‘Translation and Humour: An Approach Based on the General Theory of Verbal Humour’, The Translator 8(2): 173-194.
Chiaro, Delia (1992) The Language of Jokes. Analysing Verbal Play, London and New York, Routledge.
Chiaro, Delia (2000) ‘"Servizio completo"? On the (un)translatability of puns on screen’. In Bollettieri Bosinelli, R. M., Heiss, C., Soffritti, M. and Bernardini, S. (eds.) La traduzione multimediale: Quale traduzione per quale testo?, Bologna: CLUEB, 27-
42.
Chiaro, Delia (2004) ‘Investigating the perception of translated Verbally Expressed Humour on Italian TV’, ESP Across Cultures, 1: 35-52.
Chiaro, Delia (2005) ‘Foreword: Verbally Expressed Humour and Translation: An overview of a neglected field’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18 (2): 135–145.
Cohn, Ruby (1961) ‘Samuel Beckett Self–Translator’, PMLA 76: 613–621.
Delabastita, Dirk (1996) ‘Introduction’, The Translator 2(2): 127-139.
Delabastita, Dirk (1997) ‘Introduction’. In D. Delabastita (ed.) Traductio: Essays on Punning and Translation. Special Issue of Target 12(1):161-166.
Dore, Margherita (2019) Humour in Audiovisual Translation. Theories and Applications. New York and London: Routledge.
Dore, Margherita (Forthcoming, ed.) Humour Translation in the Age of Multimedia. New York and London: Routledge.
Eco, Umberto (2013) ‘Come se si scrivessero due libri diversi [As if you wrote two different books]’ In A. Ceccherelli, G. E. Imposti, & M. Perotto (eds.), Autotraduzione e riscrittura [Self-translation and rewriting], Bologna: Bononia University Press, 25–30.
Fitch, Brian T. (1988) Beckett and Babel: an investigation into the status of the bilingual work. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gentes, Eva (2020) Bibliography: autotraduzione/autotraducción/self-translation. URL https://app.box.com/s/iux0u31earrvgi5n3l32jev65i5a593e
Noonan, Will. 2013. ‘Self-translation, Self-reflection, Self-derision: Samuel Beckett’s Bilingual Humour’. In A. Cordingley (ed.), Self-Translation: Brokering Originality in Hybrid Culture. London: Continuum, 159–176
Palmieri, Giacinto (2017a) ‘Oral self-translation of stand-up comedy and its (mental) text: a theoretical model”. Humor. International journal of humor studies, 30/2, 193–210. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2016-0092
Palmieri, Giacinto (2017b). “Self-translation and orality: the case of stand-up comedy”. Perspectives. Studies in translation theory and practice, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2017.1351457
Palmieri, Giacinto (2018) Oral self-translation of stand-up comedy: from the mental text to performance and interaction. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Surrey.
Sebellin, Rossana M. (2009) ‘Bilingualism and Bi-textuality: Samuel Beckett’s Double Texts’. In D. Guardamagna and R. M. Sebellin (eds.), The Tragic Comedy of Samuel Beckett “Beckett in Rome” 17–19 April 2008. Università degli Studi di Roma. Editori Laterza, 39–56.
Zabalbeascoa, Patrick (1994) ‘Factors in dubbing television comedy’, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 2 (1): 89-99.