July 2010, Volume 8, No.7 (Serial No.

82)

US-China Foreign Language, ISSN1539-8080, USA

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

Sara Laviosa
(English Language and Translation, University of Bari (Aldo Moro), Bari 70125, Italy)

Abstract: In Western societies, humour appears in many different communicative events, and is variedly
expressed through words, pictures, sounds and body language. Humour is peculiar in that it is creative, compelling
and culture-specific, and produces effects that go beyond the humour feeling aroused by a witty remark or a
funny situation. Moreover, humour appreciation does not always go hand in hand with the ability to (re)produce it
successfully (Vandaele, 2002, p. 150; p. 169). These are arguably some of the reasons why humour presents an
exciting challenge to translation, whatever its position may be on the acceptability-adequacy continuum in the
target language (Toury, 1995). After introducing the conceptual structure of humour put forward by Jeroen
Vandale (2002), the author will firstly analyse a sample of multi-modal, non-literary texts produced either in
England or Italy, as an exercise in decoding the multiple meaning of humour in the English/Italian translation
classroom (Vandaele, 2002, p. 156). The author will then examine the convergent similarity between the way
humour is expressed in Jeanette Wintersons novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and the Italian translation Non
ci sono solo le arance (There Are Not Only Oranges) by Maria Ludovica Petta (Chesterman, 2007). In this
translation-oriented case study, the author compares the (re)encoding of humour across languages and cultures
with a view to heighten translation students awareness of the linguistic constraints and options involved in
reproducing humour. It is suggested that the insights gained by the contextualised analysis of humour across
genres and languages provide trainee translators with an increased awareness of the specific meaning of humour
in a variety of text types and a basis for the examination and assessment of their own target texts.
Key words: humour feeling; translation; advertising; multi-modal texts; translation pedagogy

1. Introduction
It has been said that laughter is therapeutic and amiability lengthens the life span (Angelou, 1993, p. 7). It
comes as no surprise, therefore, that humour, at least in the Western world, seems to be all around people. It
appears in many different communicative events and is expressed through a variety of modes, which act
interactively and separately to arouse the humour feeling, broadly defined by Vandaele (2002, p. 151), As any
sort of positive feeling or response to a (relatively) successful instance of humour, where positive means that
the instance of humour is indeed somehow acknowledged; this does not exclude aggressive humour. This
minimal working definition of the humorous feeling refers only to one aspect of the umbrella concept of humour,
namely its exteriorized manifestation (Vandaele, 2002, p. 150). But, as Vandaele (2002) contends, there is more
humour than its perlocutionary effect: a successful humorous instance can in fact be construed more appropriately
in terms of: (1) The (con)textual causes of the humour feeling; (2) The humour feeling in its own right; and (3)
The further intended and unintended effects that the humour feeling itself causes, e.g., goodwill, cheerfulness, etc..
Sara Laviosa, lecturer of English Language and Translation, University of Bari (Aldo Moro); research fields: corpus translation
studies, translation.
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(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

It can be safely affirmed that Vandales proposed conceptual structure of humour can be of value to the translation
scholar, the translation student and the professional translator, who wish to gain a clearer understanding of how
humour is encoded and re-encoded in source and target texts.
In this paper, the author illustrates how the notion of humour as a complex semiotic situation can be applied
in the translation classroom to achieve 2 interrelated learning objectives: develop the ability to decode the multiple
meaning of humour in 2 working languages and raise analytic awareness of the challenges and opportunities
enshrined in the (re)encoding of humour in the target text. The first part of the paper is devoted to the decoding
stage. It consists in (de)constructing humour in a sample of multi-modal, non-literary texts which have been
produced either in England or in Italy, and have an observed, distinct and non-aggressive humour effect among
students whose working languages are English and Italian. The second part of the paper is devoted to the
(re)encoding stage. It presents a case study of fictional-humour translation, which involves the analysis of the
convergent similarity between 2 literary parallel texts: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
and the Italian translation Non ci sono solo le arance by Maria Ludovica Petta (Chesterman, 2007).
The texts analysed in this paper have been presented to groups of bi- and multi- lingual postgraduate students
attending seminars and workshops in Italy and UK during the 2007-2008 academic year1 . Their valuable
contribution to the lively discussions concerning the multiple meaning of humour in translated and non-translated
texts is gratefully acknowledged.

2. The humour feeling and its further effects: The romantic comedy
What follows is the analysis of 2 consecutive scenes taken from Somethings Gotta Give, a romantic comedy
by Nancy Meyers, starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton as Harry Sanborn and Erica Barry. Harry is a
self-confessed playboy who has been dating young women for 40 years, as he proudly announces at the beginning
of the movie. Erica is quite the opposite. She is a divorcee and a renowned playwright who lives with her daughter
Marin (Amanda Peet) at Hamptons Beach, leading a fairly quiet life, at least compared with Harrys glamourous,
exciting existence. One day, while spending a romantic weekend with Marin at Ericas, Harry suffers a mild heart
attack and reluctantly accepts Ericas hospitality for a period of recovery.
The first scene is set at Ericas house, where Harry is undergoing his first medical check-up with the dashing
30-year-old cardiologist, Julian (Keanu Reeves), who is a secret admirer of Erica. Here is the script of the
dialogue between Harry and Julian:
Harry: Yes or no? Whats the deal? Can I go?
Julian: Youre still getting dizzy?
Harry: Not as much.
Julian: Out of breath?
Harry: Only sometimes.
Julian: Good. Hows Erica treating you?
Harry: Who?
Julian: Erica.
Harry: Oh. Her. She is a major piece of work. Doc, the woman wears turtlenecks in the middle of the summer.
Shes beyond uptight. Almost makes her fun to be around.
1

University of Bari, Italy; University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy; University of Manchester, UK and University of Salford, UK.
27

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

Julian: Uptight? Thats funny. I havent noticed that.

Harry: Try living with her. I actually saw her naked last night.
Julian: That doesnt sound so uptight.
Harry: It was an accident. She thought I was asleep. I thought her room was the kitchen.
Julian: You know what Freud said. There are no accidents.
Harry: Trust me, this was an accident. Although, why should she be walking around naked when she knows
Im 20 feet away?
Julian: Why would you think her bedroom was the kitchen?
Harry: It was dark. It was 2:00 in the morning.
Julian: That could explain why she was walking around naked. Deep breath!
Harry; You know, Ive never seen a woman that age naked before.
Julian: Youre kidding.
Harry: Hey, were not all doctors, baby.
Julian: I think shes very beautiful. And shes a fantastic writer, you know.
Harry: No, I dont know.
Julian: Shes pretty major. So you date her daughter?
Harry: Okay, now shes a great chick. Must take after her father. Which reminds me? Doc, what about Mr.
Midnight here? When can I be up and running in that department?
Julian: I think Mr. Midnight needs to stay put for another couple of weeks.
Harry: But it wont kill me when I do it, right?
Julian: No, its exercise. Itll be good for you. After a heart attack, the rule of thumb is: If you can climb a
flight of stairs, you can have sex.
In no time at all, Harry puts himself to the test in the following scene, he appears at the bottom of an
impossibly steep flight of wooden stairs placed along the beach. At first, he is very determined to climb it, but he
soon accepts defeat in the face of such formidable task, despite the encouragement from the lively, energizing
soundtrack and the words of the songs refrain, written and performed by Jimmy Cliff:
You can get it if you really want;
You can get it if you really want;
You can get it if you really want;
But you must try-try and try-try and try.

In the first scene, language and body-language interact to create the humour feeling 2 . Harrys facial
expressions change quite noticeably as the mood of the conversation varies. Sometimes, he looks serious and
thoughtful, and then, he turns ironic and allusive. The language is rich of rhetorical figures. Some of them
describe Ericas apparently odd behaviour, such as the use of paradox: Doc, the woman wears turtlenecks in the
middle of the summer; metaphor: She is a major piece of work; and hyperbole: Shes beyond uptight. Other
rhetorical figures focus on Harrys persona, they either emphasize his sex appeal and sexual preferences, such as
paradox: Ive never seen a woman that age naked before; and metaphor: Okay, now shes a great chick; or
they express Harrys burning desire to regain his health as quickly as possible, such as metaphor: Whats the
2

The analysis of the humour feeling, its causes and further effects presented in this paper is based on self-reflection, examination of
textual and contextual data as well as students reactions and observations. The analysis of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and of the
Italian translation Non ci sono solo le arance is also based on the examination of meta-texts.

28

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

deal?; Doc, what about Mr. Midnight here?; and idiom (be up and running)+metaphor (in that department):
When can I be up and running in that department?.
By contrast, Julian uses a less informal register, which expresses his way of making sense of events: rational,
logical and exuding a deep sense of admiration and respect for Erica. The humour feeling is enhanced by the
personalities of the 2 male characters who are quite the opposite of each other. Exemplary, in this regard, is the
strikingly different contextual use of the word major in the expressions: She is a major piece of work and Shes
pretty major. While the former is uttered with a touch of irony to highlight Ericas peculiarities, the latter
expresses real appreciation for Ericas artistic talent. In this successful instance of humour, the further effects
created by the humour feeling consist in the contrastive characterization of Harry, who is perceived as masculine,
macho, arrogant and self-confident; and Julian, who is portrayed as sensitive, cultured, refined and romantic.
In the second scene, the humour feeling is aroused by the interaction among image, language, body-language
and music. While in the previous scene, Harrys concern about his health is dimly perceived through the direct and
indirect questions he puts to Julian, in the flight-of-stairs scene, he suddenly appears fragile and vulnerable. Harry
seems to be just like an ordinary man who is struggling to get back to normality, and as people heartily laugh at
his firm intention of living life to the fullest, they also feel real empathy for him.
Of course, humour abounds in comedy as much as in comics, cartoons and jokes. But it is also a feature of
genres as varied as advertising3, the language of souvenirs4, political slogans, newspaper headlines, narrative,
poetry and even academic lectures (particularly in British academia). To capture the pervasiveness of humour and
its semiotic complexity, the authors will, in the next 3 sections, examine the humour feeling and its further effects
in a sample of English and Italian speech situations drawn from advertising, the language of souvenirs and
political slogans.

3. Different humour in Italian and English

3.1 Humour in Italian print adverts
The 3 advertisements examined here have been selected from the 4-year advertising campaign launched in
2001 by Esselunga, a chain of supermarkets located in Northern Italy. The campaign consists of 18 print
advertisements, each containing a paronymic visual pun5 as exemplified below6.
In each of the above headlines, a paronymic pun is obtained by bringing together the name of a particular
food product, such as cherry, aglio (meaning garlic in Italian) or lemon: (1) a word contained in an expression
used on a festive occasion, such as merry, in Merry Christmas; (2) the name of a cultural event, such as Halloween;
or (3) the name of a celebrity, such as John Lennon (see Figure 1). The humour feeling is aroused through the
interaction between the play on words and the visual, which disambiguates the verbal pun by depicting different
types of fruit or vegetables dressed up so as to resemble the evoked personality or cultural event. Also, the humour
feeling has the further effect of rendering the advertised products memorable and desirable, it gratifies the reader
3

See in particular: Beverly and Valds (Eds.). 2004; Cook, 2001; Goddard, 2002; Pennarola, 2003.
See, for example, Francescani, 2005.
5
A paronymic verbal pun is created by bringing together in the same utterance two paronymous words, which is words that are
slightly different in both spelling and sound (Delabastita, 1996, p. 128). In a paronymic visual pun the image disambiguates the play
on words.
6
Retrieved November 1, 2008, from http://www.esselunga.it. It is important to specify that the campaign launched by Esselunga
includes many more ads which use the same rhetorical device, but with Italian words and names which refer to Italian (e.g.,
Ravanello/Raffaello Sanzio; Finocchio/Pinocchio) and non-Italian famous people (Melanzana/Indiana Jones; Re Salamone/
Salomone). This is because the campaign is targeted at an Italian audience.
4

29

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

for having unravelled the double meaning conveyed by the pun, it recreates the friendly, happy atmosphere of
costume parties and projects, also through the use of English as a global language7, the image of a company that is
cool, trendy and international, welcomes you with a smile.

Figure 1

Esselunga

3.2 Humour in English souvenir postcards

The souvenir postcard reproduced below is part of the How to be British series of postcards, artwork by
Martyn Ford, LGP (see Figure 2). In this funny speech situation, language and image interact to create a parody
of an imaginary English lesson on how to pronounce a notoriously difficult phoneme in the English language, i.e.,
7

It is worth saying that, differently from the other ads, whose humour can be appreciated by a transnational audience thanks to the
exclusive use of English as a lingua franca, the aglioween pun can only be understood by speakers of Italian, since this is a
bilingual pun that brings together an Italian word aglio and an English word halloween in the same utterance.

30

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

the voiceless fricative th sound. The further effects created by the humour feeling can be expressed in terms of
managing the unfamiliarity of a destination for the tourist (Dann, 1996, p. 172). Humour makes the foreign visitor
feel more ease and less self-conscious about the way she/he speaks the foreign tongue. In turn, feeling at ease on
foreign ground has the effect of bringing a visitor closer to and more open towards the hosting country and
culture.

Figure 2

Souvenir postcard

3.3 Humour in Italian political slogans

The photograph reproduced below was taken during an anti-war demonstration in Italy (see Figure 3). It
shows in the foreground 3 young women with a radiant, cheeky smile on their faces. They wear white T-shirts
with the following slogan printed in red capital letters across their chests: Queste sono le uniche bombe
intelligenti (these are the only intelligent bombs). The humour feeling arises from the extremely paradoxical
association between a womans breastssymbol of fertility, pleasure, sensuality and bombs. The slogan brings to
mind the mottoes that were popular in the 1960s: make love, do not make war, as well as peace and love. In this
speech situation, humour is intended and perceived to be highly persuasive.

Figure 3

Anti-war slogan
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(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

4. Translating fictional humour from English to Italian

In addition to its complex conceptual structure, humour is peculiar, Vandaele (2002, p. 150) argues for 4 main
reasons:
(1) Humour as a meaning effect has an undeniable, exteriorized manifestation, e.g., laughter or smiling, and
for this reason, it is more compelling than other textual phenomena;
(2) The comprehension of humour (and its appreciation) and humour production are 2 distinct skills,
therefore, it cannot be easily taught like other forms of language production;
(3) The appreciation of humour varies individually;
(4) The rhetorical effect of humour on translators may be so overwhelming that it blurs the specifics of its
creation; strong emotions may hinder rationalization.
Moreover, translating humour, Vandaele (2002, pp. 153-154) contends, consists in writing a target text
capable of arousing the same or similar humour feeling aroused by the source text, and translators must account
for the (con)textual causes of humour and the further effects that humour itself causes. It is no wonder, therefore,
that humour poses a real challenge to the translator, and deconstructing humour as a complex semiotic situation
across source text and target text can, in the authors view, be useful for descriptive and training purposes alike.
What follows is an investigation of the convergent similarity between the way humour is aroused and
expressed in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and in the Italian translation, Non ci sono solo
le arance, by Ludovica Petta. As intended by Chesterman (2007), the analysis consists in identifying the total
number of samenesses (or equivalences) and differences (or shifts) in content and style between source text and
target text. The analysis combines textual and meta-textual data in order to infer the intended and perceived
further effects of the humour feeling in the source and target cultures, with a view to integrating these insights
with the comments made during group discussions in the translation classroom. The textual data consist of the
initial 4 paragraphs of the chapter, titled Genesis (see Appendixes 1 and 2). The meta-textual data are provided
by the comments made by reviewers and publishers in the source and target languages as well as the authors
self-reflexive comments on the role of humour plays in her fiction.
4.1 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit: The further effects of the humour feeling
Written during the winter of 1983 and the spring of 1984, Jeanette Wintersons first novel, Oranges Are Not
The Only Fruit, was first published in 1985 by Pandora Press and won the Whitbread Prize for best first novel.
When Pandora Press became the property of Ruport Murdoch in 1990, Jeanette Winterson decided to publish her
novel with Vintage. The novel tells the story of Jeanette, adopted by working-class evangelists in the North of
England in the 1960s. Jeanette is destined for the missionary field but at 16 she decides to leave the church, her
home and her family for the young woman she loves.
Here is a sample of editorial reviews and an excerpt from the publishers book description:
(1) As good as Poe: it dares you to laugh and stares you downThe New York Review of Books8;
(2) Warmly acclaimed as imaginative, compelling and poignant, an intimate account of the coming of age of
a rebellious girl of Evangelical background9;
(3) Funny and tender a document of the wilder side of religious enthusiasm, and an exploration of the

8
9

Retrieved November 1, 2008, from http://www.amazon.com/Oranges-Are-Not-Only-Fruit.

Joy Carol Oates, June 26, 1998, Times Online.

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(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

power of love10;
(4) Innovative in style, its humour by turns punchy and tender, Jeanette Wintersons first novel, Oranges Are
Not the Only Fruit is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession. It is a love
story, too11.
Humour is viewed as a distinctive feature of the novel, and described as highly persuasive and touching.
Moreover, Jeanette Wintersons literary style is equated to the work of Edgar Allan Poe, the 19th century
American short-story writer, poet and critic, renowned for his obsession with the themes of death, decay and
madness, and whose short-stories were influenced by a variety of literary genres, including the satire of American
humour (Marchetti, 1999, p. 145). The themes that run through the novel are identified as the rebelliousness of
adolescence, religious excess, human obsession and love.
In the authors own words, the novel is described as unlike any other novel in structure, style, content as well
as an experimental, comforting novel. Besides:
Oranges is a threatening novel. It exposes the sanctity of family life as something of a sham; it illustrates by example
that what the church calls love is actually psychosis and it dares to suggest that what makes life difficult for homosexuals
is not their perversity but other peoples. Worse, it does these things with such humour and lightness that those disposed
not to agree finds that they do. This has always been the experience of the novel and it proved to work on television too
(Winterson, 1991, pp. xiii-xiv).

Compared to the editorial reviews and the publishers book description, it is evident that the authors
self-reflexive comments on her novel and its effects on the public are more forthright and incisive. Jeanette
Winterson assigns a specific and significant role to humour, which she describes in no uncertain terms as highly
persuasive, potentially subversive and capable of seriously undermining conventional thinking, particularly as
regards homosexuality and Christian beliefs.
From the analysis of the above meta-texts, it can be reasonably inferred that the further effects of the humour
feeling aroused by the novel can be identified with its strong social impact, this being confirmed and enhanced by
the reaction of the BBC viewers of the television drama adaptation, which generated a great deal of debate and it
seems that people found in it another way of looking at the world (Winterson, 1991, p. xiv).
4.2 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit: The textual causes of the humour feeling
After reading the first 4 paragraphs of the novel (see Appendix 1), it soon becomes apparent that the humour
feeling is aroused by the way in which the narrator makes a mockery of her mother, who is portrayed as a
self-righteous, sexually repressed, deranged religious bigot, constantly engaged in a ridiculous crusade against
whoever and whatever she perceives as evil. A rich variety of rhetorical figures and devices are woven into the
text to express irony and ridicule12, as exemplified below.
Wordplay13
10

Retrieved November 1, 2008, from http://www.jeanettewinterson.com.

From the back cover of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Vintage, 1990 (2nd ed., 1991). The title of the novel has been reproduced
in red, like in the text.
12
See Smith (2006, pp. 178-182) for an useful classification of rhetorical figures. Both irony and ridicule are situated, together with
other concepts, such as pun, satire, nonsense, joke, etc., in Attardos semantic field of humour (Attardo, 1994, p. 7; Vandaele, 2002, p.
155).
13
One of the basic reasons for using wordplay, observes Alexieva from a cognitive linguistics perspective (1997, pp. 139-140),
resides in the relation between punning and an important aspect of human nature, namely our own sense of humour and our desire to
produce a humorous effect on the people we communicate with. The shared fun may strengthen the bond of solidarity if the
addressee gets the message of the clever double meaning and can thus be ranked as an equal.
11

33

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

(1) Genesis (homonymic vertical pun that brings together Genesis, referring to the first book of the Old
Testament and of the Pentacheuc, and genesis meaning birth);
(2) It wasnt that she couldnt do it, more that she didnt want to do it (isocolon and polysemantic vertical
pun that plays on the double meaning of the verbal phrase do it, meaning to perform an action or to have sex);
(3) We had no wise men because she didnt believe there were any wise men, but we had sheep (paradox and
homonymic horizontal pun that brings together wise men, i.e., The three wise men, also called The Magi and wise
men, meaning men able to make good choices because they have a lot of experience).
Paradox
(1) She hung out the largest sheet on the windiest days;
(2) She wanted the Mormons to knock on the door;
(3) At election time in a Labour mill town, she put a picture of the Conservative candidate in the window;
(4) One of my earliest memories is me sitting on a sheep at Easter while she told me the story of The
Sacrificial Lamb. We had it on Sundays with potato.
Parison
(1) My father liked to watch the wrestling, my mother liked to wrestle (parison+polypton);
(2) There were friends and there were enemies (parison+anaphora);
(3) Enemies were Friends were (the enemies are mentioned first to underline the combative personality of
this mother figure, and exactly like her friends, they are rigidly listed in bullet points and in discending order of
importance from the spiritual to the hearthly world).
Personification
Sex, slugs, dog (anagram of God), the novels of Charlotte Bront, slug pellets.
Allusion
Genesis, God, the devil, The Virgin Mary, Wise men, Easter, The sacrificial lamb.
Metaphor
(1) Watch the wrestling (fathers passivity);
(2) Wrestle (mothers readiness to fight);
(3) In the white corner (metaphor+creative collocation, meaning on the side of the righteous ones);
(4) Brought in to join her in a tag match against the rest of the world (brought into the world to fight
alongside her against the rest of the world (+hyperbole); capitalization is used ironically to allude to the name of
an opponent team in wrestling or to refer metaphorically to the name of a military campaign);
(5) Getting there first (being smarter).
4.3 Non ci sono solo le arance: The further effects of the humour feeling and its textual causes
The translation of Jeanette Wintersons novel, Non ci sono solo le arance, was carried out by Ludovica Petta
and published by Mondadori in 1994. The comments reported below, consistently with the comments made in the
source culture, highlight the importance of humour in the novel and its qualities: intelligent, creative, brilliant,
coragious and even sublime. However, unlike the comments made by the publisher and critics in the source
culture, the authors engagement with a wide range of critical, social issues is clearly identified: not only religion
and homosexuality, but also adoption and the conflicts between mother and daughter are considered as important
topics in Jeanetter Wintersons fiction. Furthermore, the central role played by the female characters in the novel
is firmly stated, as illustrated below, for example:
(1) In questo primo romanzo, Jeanette Winterson affronta con un umorismo intelligente temi forti quali la
34

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

religione, lomosessualit, ladozione e i conflitti tra madre e figlia. Nella storia che ha per protagonista
lomonima Jeanette, le donne prendono tutto il palcoscenico mentre i personaggi maschili o sono preti o mariti
inetti ed insignificanti. La lettura di questo libro non regalata: linizio un po ostico, landamento
frammentario ed a tratti visionario. Nel complesso, Non ci sono solo le arance un buon romanzo, dal carattere
decisamente femminile con una storia che chi ha una buona conoscenza dei temi religiosi del vecchio testamento
potr godere fino in fondo14.
(2) Estroso, brillante, coraggioso e addirittura sublime nel suo umorismo questo primo romanzo di Jeanette
Winterson ha subito assicurato allautrice un posto di assoluto rilievo tra gli autori pi dotati della sua
generazione15.
Similarly to the source text, when reading the translation, it can perceive 4 themes lying at the heart of the
derision that arouses the humour feeling: religious bigotry, sexual repression, conflict for its own sake and the
opposition between good and evil, so it can reasonably affirm that there is equivalence (or sameness) in conveying
the humorous feeling. What varies across source text and target text is the choice of rhetorical devices that
produce the humour effect: God/anagram dog is not reproduced, nor are the examples of polypton and isocolon.
Moreover, the examples of parison, puns and metaphors are fewer vis--vis the original. On the other hand, the
translator uses more hyperboles and biblical allusions16, as illustrated below.
Paradox
(1) Sceglieva le giornate pi ventose per stendere i lenzuoli doppi (she would choose the windiest days to
hang up the double sheets);
(2) Esigeva che i mormoni bussassero alla porta (She demanded that the Mormons knocked on the door)
(paradox + hyperbole);
(3) Durante le elezioni, in una cittadina operaia laburista 17 mise alla finestra la foto del candidato
conservatore (During the elections in a labour working class town she put a picture of the Conservative candidate
in the window);
(4) Uno dei miei primi ricordi di me in groppa a una pecora il giorno di Pasqua, mentre lei mi raccontava la
storia dellAgnello Sacrificale. Lo mangiavamo la domenica con le patate (One of my earliest memories is me
sitting on a sheep on Easter day while she told me the story of the Sacrificial Lamb. We ate it on Sundays with
14

In her first novel, Jeanette Winterson considers with intelligent humour topics as sensitive as religion, homosexuality, adoption
and the conflicts between mother and daughter. In the story, whose protagonist is the homonymous Jeanette, women take centre stage,
while the male characters are either priests or insignificant, inept husbands. This book is not easy to read, the beginning is a bit
difficult, and the pace is fragmentary and dreamlike at times. On the whole, Non ci sono solo le arance is a fine novel, definitely
feminine, with a storyline that those with a good knowledge of the religious themes of the Old Testament will be able to thoroughly
enjoy (The authors translation). Retrieved November 1, 2008, from http://it.geocities.com/claupalm/Testi/Recensionibrevi/
sololearance.html.
15
Innovative, brilliant, courageous and even sublime in its humour, Jeanette Wintersons first novel soon secured the author a
pre-eminent position amongst the most talented writers of her generation (The authors translation). From the inside flap copy of Non
ci sono solo le arance, Mondadori, 1994.
16
Mona Baker (personal communication, 2007) points out that, if this shift towards greater use of hyperboles and/or biblical
allusions is maintained throughout the target text, there may well be a change in the further effects produced by the humour feeling
after reading the entire novel. One possible difference may be a greater emphasis on the characterization of the narrators mother as a
religious fanatic.
17
The author quotes here the observations of an anonymous referee, since they clearly show how semantic shifts (which by
definition are regarded as differences in the analysis of a translation profile) are sometimes essential in arousing the same or similar
humour feeling in the target text: the stratagem of rendering the mill town with cittadina operaia, working class town, is a skilled
change connected to the social strataItalians would not recognize the mill town as a center for social rights/fights but would do
with the blue collar scenario.
35

(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

potatoes).
Allusion
(1) Genesi (Genesis) (allusion+homonymic pun);
(2) Dio (God);
(3) Il diavolo (the devil);
(4) La Vergine Maria (The Virgin Mary);
(5) I Re Magi (Wise Men);
(6) Pasqua (Easter);
(7) L Agnello Sacrificale (Sacrificial Lamb);
(8) guerra santa (holy war).
Metaphor
(1) A mio padre piaceva guardare la lotta (my father liked to watch the wrestling);
(2) A mia madre piaceva farla (my mother liked to do it);
(3) Ero stata messa al mondo per essere sua alleata nella guerra santa contro il Resto del Mondo (I had been
brought into the world to be her ally in the holy war against the rest of the world) (metaphor+2 hyperboles: holy
war and the rest of the world).
Parison
I nemici eranoGli amici erano (Enemies wereFriends were) Personification
Sesso (sex), lumache (snails), cane (dog), i romanzi di Charlotte Bront (the novels of Charlotte Bront),
veleno per le lumache (snail pellets).
The comparison between Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Non ci sono solo le arance suggests that while
translating humour generally consists in writing a target text capable of arousing the same or similar humourous
feeling achieved by the source text, the textual causes of humour and its further effects may well differ as a result
of the constraints imposed by the target language system and/or the stylistic choices made by the individual
translator, who acts as a creative, skilful cultural mediator.

5. Conclusion
Starting from the premise that humour can be usefully construed as a complex semiotic situation, this study
throws some light into the multifarious nature of the humour feeling, its (con)textual causes and its further effects,
by (de)constructing a number of different speech situations in English, Italian and across English and Italian
within the translation classroom environment. The findings seem to support the claim that further understanding
of what a particular instance of humour means may be achieved a posteriori by looking back to its causes, and
looking ahead to its future effects, so as to broaden and refine the meaning of humour (Vandaele, 2002, p. 155).
Finally, drawing on the prescriptive statement that translators must account for the (con)textual causes of humour
and the further effects that humour itself causes (Vandaele, 2002, pp. 153-154), it is proposed that the present
contextualized analysis of humour will elaborated further as a student-centred, task-based-learning methodology
for teaching fictional and non-fictional humour translation.
References:
Alexieva, B.. 1997. There must be some system in this madness: Metaphor, polysemy and wordplay in a cognitive linguistic
framework. In: Dirk, D.. (Ed.). Traductio: Essays on punning and translation. Manchester: St. Jerome, 137-154.

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(De)constructing humour across languages and genres

Angelou, M.. 1993. Wouldnt take nothing for my journey now. New York: Bantam Books.
Beverley, A. & Valds, C.. (Eds.). 2004. Key debates in the translation of advertising material. The Translator, 10(2).
Chesterman, A.. 2007. Similarity analysis and the translation profile. In: Willy, V., Sonia, V. & Marc, V. De V.. (Eds.). The study of
language and translation. Belgian Journal of Linguistics, (21), 53-66.
Cook, G.. 2001. The discourse of advertising. London & New York: Routledge.
Dann, G.. 1996. The language of tourism: A sociolinguistic perspective. Oxford: CAB International.
Delabastita, D.. 1996. Introduction. In: Dirk, D.. (Ed.). Wordplay and translation. Special Issue of The Translator, 2(2), 127-139.
Francescani, S.. 2005. The language of souvenirs: The use of humour in London T-shirts. Textus, XVIII(2), 381-396.
Goddard, A.. 2002. The language of advertising. London & New York: Routledge.
Jacobson, R.. 1960. Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics. In: Sebeok, T. A.. (Ed.). Style in language. Cambridge: MA: MIT
Press, 350-377.
Marchetti, L.. 1999. A.E. Poe, from the contamination of genres to the breaking up of vases. In: Alberto, D. & Annamaria, S.. (Eds.).
At the boundaries of genres: Examples of literary hybridization. Bari: Graphis, 139-146.
Pennarola, C.. 2003. Nonsense in advertising. Napoli: Liguori.
Smith, K.. 2006. Rhetorical figures and the translation of advertising headlines. Language and Literature, 15(2), 159-182.
Toury, G.. 1995. Descriptive translation studies and beyond. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Vandaele, J.. 2002. Introduction. (Re-)constructing humour: Meanings and means. In: Jeroen, V.. (Ed.). Translating humour. The
Translator, 8(2), 149-172.
Winterson, J.. 1991. Introduction. In: Oranges are not the only fruit. London: Vintage, xi-xv.

(Edited by Sunny and Chris)

Appendix 1

Genesis

Like most people I lived for a long time with my mother and father. My father liked to watch the wrestling, my mother liked to
wrestle; it didnt matter what. She was in the white corner and that was that.
She hung out the largest sheets on the windiest days. She wanted the Mormons to knock on the door. At election time in a
Labour mill town she put a picture of the Conservative candidate in the window.
She had never heard of mixed feelings. There were friends and there were enemies.
Enemies were: The Devil (in his many forms)
Next Door
Sex (in its many forms)
Slugs
Friends were: God
Our dog
Auntie Madge
The Novels of Charlotte Bront
Slug pellets
And me, at first, I had been brought in to join her in a tag match against the Rest of the World. She had a mysterious attitude
towards the begetting of children; it wasnt that she couldnt do it, more that she didnt want to do it. She was very bitter about the
Virgin Mary getting there first. So she did the next best thing and arranged for a foundling. That was me.
I cannot recall a time when I did not know that I was special. We had no Wise Men because she didnt believe there were any
wise men, but we had sheep. One of my earliest memories is me sitting on a sheep at Easter while she told me the story of the
Sacrificial Lamb. We had it on Sundays with potato.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Vintage, 1990, 2nd reprint, 1991, pp. 1-4.

Appendix 2

Genesi

Come quasi tutti ho vissuto a lungo con mio padre e mia madre. A mio padre piaceva guardare la lotta, a mia madre piaceva
farla; non importava quale. Lei era nel giusto, e poche storie.
Sceglieva le giornate pi ventose per stendere i lenzuoli doppi. Esigeva che i mormoni bussassero alla porta. Durante le elezioni,
in una cittadina operaia laburista mise alla finestra la foto del candidato conservatore.
Non aveva mai avuto incertezze. Per lei il mondo si divideva in amici e nemici.
I nemici erano:
z Il Diavolo (nelle sue varie forme)
z I vicini
(to be continued on Page 43)
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