Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the novel which Lewis Carroll initially wrote for Alice Liddell, was published in 1865 and became one of the most iconic children’s books of all time. It has been...Show moreAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the novel which Lewis Carroll initially wrote for Alice Liddell, was published in 1865 and became one of the most iconic children’s books of all time. It has been translated and retranslated many times into many languages, including Dutch. This thesis will explore the differences and similarities of the translation of puns in two translations of AiW into Dutch, namely the first complete one by Kossmann & Reedijk (1947) and a recent one by Matsier (2016). Puns are described by Low (59) as a kind of wordplay that exploits the ambiguity of a specific language, usually with humorous intent. Although retranslations of puns in AiW in other languages have been discussed, there has not been a case study on Dutch retranslations of AiW. This thesis aims to assess what translation methods the translators used to deal with the difficulties of translating puns and what differences and similarities there are between the two translations. The discussion will also focus on whether the translations meet Weaver’s criteria for maintaining the dual nature of AiW and Low’s criteria for retaining the same type of humor in translation. The puns in the ST have been identified using Nash’s (1985) categorization of puns and the translator’s used methods have been identified using Delebastita’s (1997) typology of translation methods for puns. The types of puns in the ST and their TT counterparts have been analyzed, and the translation methods have been determined. After presenting both an overview of the methods and types of puns used in both translations, the analysis concludes with an in-depth analysis of several puns. The types of puns in the ST and TTs have been compared to see whether they have stayed true to the distribution of types of puns in the ST. The hypotheses are that both translators will have tried to translate each pun into a pun or other humoristic element in Dutch, that the older translation follows the ST more closely, and that the more recent translation is more adapted to be read by children.Show less
In my thesis I analyzed the Dutch subtitles of the puns and wordplay in Duck Soup and several examples from other Marx Brothers movies. I used two different criteria to examine the Dutch subtitles....Show moreIn my thesis I analyzed the Dutch subtitles of the puns and wordplay in Duck Soup and several examples from other Marx Brothers movies. I used two different criteria to examine the Dutch subtitles. The first was: does the subtitler manage to come up with a translation that remains true to the absurdism of the Marx Brothers’ humor, to the characters, and to the time in which the movies were made? The second was based on Dimitris Asimakoulas’s ‘ideal translation’: a translation that remains faithful to all aspects of the General Theory of Verbal Humor. What my analysis has shown, on the basis of the two above-mentioned criteria, is that the subtitler frequently managed to come up with a translation that retained the absurdism of the humor and remained faithful to the time in which the movies were made, but that the subtitles do not remain faithful to the individual characterizations. Furthermore, in this thesis I also argued that a successful translation does not have to remain faithful to all elements of the General Theory of Verbal Humor. My thesis question “What makes for the ‘best’ translation of the puns and wordplay in the Marx Brothers movies, considering they rely heavily on puns and wordplay” can thus be answered as follows: a successful translation does not have to be a literal translation of the puns and wordplay or remain faithful to the aspects of the General Theory of Verbal Humor, but it should remain faithful to the characteristic absurdism of the Marx Brothers’ humor, to the time in which the movies were made, and to the personality of the characters.Show less
