Léda Mansour

The article takes into consideration the problem of translating humor in fiction. Regarding the cultural and subjective nature of humor, the author asks the following question: is it possible to translate humor and recreate the effect caused by the original text? The article investigates the Cairo Trilogy (1956–1957), a novel and a family saga by Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006), one of the most widely recognized Egyptian authors and a laureate of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. The novel follows the life of a bourgeois Cairene family ‘Abd el-Gawwad in the early 20th century. The source for investigation is the original text of the novel written in Arabic and its French translation made by Philippe Vigreux (1985, 1987, 1989). The methods are strictly connected with the concepts of dialogism and intertextuality. In an attempt to answer the questions posed, the author considers such aspects of the problem as the effect of the original text and its reflection on common cultural knowledge in humor in order to show some limitations of translation and its ability to recreate humor in free forms. As a result, there have been found such translation tendencies as an explanation of a joke by giving a note; giving a note without explaining the humor; loose inserts by the translator that create humor effect in such fragments where it does not exist in the source text, etc. The author concludes that, despite the fact that the humor effect in the translation is not fully recreated, sarcasm and humor are transmitted “correctly” throughout the text. Here are the questions for further discussion: is it necessary to explain everything? What are disadvantages of giving notes? Are there universally fun things?

Original article: Mansour L. (2010) Traduire l’humour dans La Trilogie de Naguib Mahfouz: La traduc- tion toutes tendances confondues. Idioma 20, Transhumoresques, Bruxelles, Belgique, pp. 113–129.

Translated by Yulia Bogdanova. Institute for Asian and African States, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. For contacts: jul.bogd1111@gmail.com