Linguistic and idiological-cultural aspects in the translation of humour. A case study of the comic series, Agrippine

Abstract

Positioned at an intersection between linguistic manipulation and the sociocultural roots of a community, humour is often considered untranslatable – an element of interlinguistic and intercultural inequivalence. This paper looks especially at the translation of humour in comics, which consists of composite, multisemiotic texts where both verbal and non-verbal components blend into a single, unified language. In our analysis, we will examine a varied selection of examples from Claire Bretécher’s comic series, Agrippine, the humour of which is based on the use of partly genuine, partly invented slang and situations grounded in specific sociocultural and ideological contexts. We will investigate some of the main issues associated with the presence of humour (whether verbal, linguo-cultural and/or visual), as well as some strategies that can be adopted when translating from French into Italian, in order to maintain the humorous effects of the source text.