Cover not available
Part of
Key Cultural Texts in Translation
Edited by Kirsten Malmkjær, Adriana Şerban and Fransiska Louwagie
[Benjamins Translation Library 140] 2018
► pp. 275–297

Chapter 16
Cultural satirical features in translation

The Pessoptimist as a case study

Satire is closely related to its context, so translated satire may lack “satirical flavor”. This article investigates whether Arabic cultural features remain in Habiby’s The Pessoptimist, a translation of a major work in the modern Arabic literary canon written by a noted Palestinian writer and politician. Due to its theme, the Israeli-Arab conflict, and its unique satirical style, this novel has been translated into Hebrew and English. Analysing the English translation, I seek to identify culture-bound satirical features in the source text, investigate the translation strategies used to render them, and to emphasize the role of the translator in preserving the satirical flavour. I draw upon a modified version of Simpson’s (2003) model of satire, Translation Studies, and literary studies.

Keywords: satire, cultural features, The Pessoptimist , translation studies, stylistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Satire: Towards a better understanding
    • 2.1Satire as a universal practice
    • 2.2Satire as a discursive practice
    • 2.3Satire as a social practice
  • 3. The Pessoptimist as a Key Cultural Text
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Discourse world
  • 6.Satirical method
    • 6.1Metonymic satirical method
    • 6.2Metaphoric satirical method
      • 6.3Satirical hooks
  • 7.Satirical uptake
  • 8.Results
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.140.16abd
References
Al-Shaikhli, Khalid & Hussain, Suhail
2011 Investigating Arabic satire with special reference to translating satirical expressions in the Glorious Quran. Journal of Research Diyala Humanity, 51, 634–653.Google Scholar
Aristophanes
2013 Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved February 3, 2014, From [URL]Google Scholar
Ashworth, Peter
1967 Humor, Irony and Satire in the Prose Fiction of Ramón Pérez De Ayala. Michigan:University of Oklahoma. Retrieved from University Microfilms, Inc.Google Scholar
Black, Elizabeth
2006 Pragmatic Stylistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Clifford
1976 The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld: The Banu Sasan in Arabic Society and Literature. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Broeder, Linda
2007 Translating Humour: The Problems of Translating Terry Pratchett (Master’s thesis). University of Utrecht, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Cuddon, John
1999 The Penguin Dictionary of Literacy Terms and Literacy Theory. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Delisle, Jean
1988 Translation: An Interpretive Approach. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.Google Scholar
Dennis, John
2007 Remarks on Mr. Pope’s Rape of the Lock. In several letters to a friend. With a preface, occasion’d by the late Treatise on the profound, and The Dunciad. By Mr. Dennis. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Michigan: University of Michigan Library. Retrieved January 2, 2014 from [URL] (Printed for J. Roberts 1728, London).Google Scholar
Emile Habibi
n.d.). Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from [URL] Web site: [URL]
Fairclough, Norman
1992 Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Fowler, Roger
(Ed.) 1987 A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Frye, Northrop
1957 Anatomy of Criticism : Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ghazala, Hasan
2011 Cognitive Stylistics and the Translator. London: Sayyab Books.Google Scholar
Gring-Pemble, Lisa. and Watson, Martha S.
2003 The rhetorical limits of satire: An analysis of James Finn Garner’s politically correct bedtime stories. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 89(2), 132–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gutt, Ernst-August
1990 A theoretical account of translation - without a translation theory. Target, 2(2), 135–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harris, Robert
2004 The purpose and method of satire. Virtual Salt. Retrieved February 1, 2014, from [URL]Google Scholar
Kerr, Glenn J.
2011 Dynamic equivalence and its daughters: Placing Bible translation theories in their historical context. Journal of Translation, 7(1), 1–19.Google Scholar
Knight, Charles A.
2004 The Literature of Satire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kreuz, Roger J. and Roberts, Richard M.
1993 On satire and parody: The importance of being ironic. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 8(2), 97–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leppihalme, Ritva
1997 Culture Bumps: An Empirical Approach to the Translation of Allusions. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Lichtheim, Miriam
2006. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Vol. 1, London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Maher, Brigid
2008 Identity and humour in translation: The extravagant comic style of Rosa Cappiello’s Paese fortunato. In P. Nikolaou and M. Kyritsi (Eds.), Translating Selves: Experience and Identity between Languages and Literatures (pp.141–153). London: Continuum.Google Scholar
2011 Recreation and Style: Translating Humorous Literature in Italian and English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nida, Eugene
1964 Toward a Science of Translating: With Special Reference to Principles and Procedures involved in Bible Translating. Leiden: Brill Archive.Google Scholar
Preminger, Alex and Brogan, Terry
(Eds) 1993 The New Princeton Encyclopaedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rao, T. Durga
2004 Problems of Translating Satire from English to Telugu and Vice Versa: An Evaluation (Doctoral dissertation). University of Hyderabad, India.Google Scholar
Raphaelson-West, Debra S.
1989 On the feasibility and strategies of translating humor. Meta, 36(1), 128–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, Dwight
2008  The Thousand and One Nights: A history of the text and its reception. In R. Allen and D. S. Richards (Eds.) Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period (pp.270–291). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.Google Scholar
Rietbroek, Pim
2010 Brill’s simple Arabic transliteration system. Retrieved 29 August 2014 from [URL]Google Scholar
Rosenheim, Edward W.
1963 “The satiric spectrum.” In Ronald Paulson (Ed.), Satire: Modern Essays in Criticism (pp.305–330), New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Simpson, Paul
2003 On the Discourse of Satire: Towards a Stylistic Model of Satirical Humour. Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan & Wilson, Deirdre
1995 Relevance: Communication and Cognition (2nd edition). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Test, George A.
1991 Satire: Spirit and Art. Florida: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Vandaele, Jeroen
2002 Introduction: (Re-)Constructing humour: Meanings and means. The Translator, 8(2), 149–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wanjala, Makarios Wakoko
2010 Translating Satire: An Analysis of Excerpts from Animal Farm into Lubukusu (Master’s Thesis). Kenyatta University, Kenyatta.Google Scholar
Werth, Paul
1999 Text worlds: Representing Conceptual Space in Discourse. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Yetkin, Nihal
2011 A case study on the humorous load differences and cognitive effects of satirically/ironically humorous elements in subtitling from English into Turkish. The Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education (JoLIE), 1(4), 239–253.Google Scholar

Arabic references

.حبیبي، إمیل.
1998 الوقائع الغریبة في اختفاء سعید أبي النحس المتشائل. القاھرة: دار الھلالGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Malmkjær, Kirsten
2022. Translation Studies fifty years on. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 8:3 ► pp. 211 ff. DOI logo
Wehrmeyer, Ella
2021. Mapping Culture in Literary Translation. In African Perspectives on Literary Translation, ► pp. 110 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.