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Part of
Humour in Self-Translation
Edited by Margherita Dore
[Topics in Humor Research 11] 2022
► pp. 215–232

Chapter 10
How funny am I?

Humour, self-translation and translation of the self

ORCID logo | Deakin University
ORCID logo | Deakin University
This paper explores and responds to the question: how funny am I in self-translation? Taking up Eco’s notion that translative processes involve negotiation (2004), the authors explore the way in which the self is negotiated in the process of moving across and between texts-in-translation. They examine and discuss examples of their own self-translation of short comedic forms of writing across English, Italian and Serbian. The similarities and differences in their approaches are used as a springboard for analysing how subjectivity informs and infuses the translation process. Following the work of Bhaba (1994), Braidotti (2011), Chiaro (2010), Palmieri (2018) and others, the author-translators uncover the importance of humour to multicultural, multi-lingual, hybrid and in-between identities. Through the collaborative practice of their writing and self-translation, they discover that humour functions as a drawbridge between languages, cultures and national identities: sometimes meeting, and sometimes not.
Keywords: self-translation, humour, in-between-ness, hybridity, creative writing, multiculturalism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Defining self-translation
  • 3.Self-translation and humour
  • 4.The negotiated self in humour translation
  • 5.Humour, third space and translation as nomadic practice
  • 6.The incongruous self and the familiar stranger
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 13 October 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/thr.11.10ven
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