Staff & Student Area

This course explores the ways in which humour can be conveyed across linguistic and cultural barriers. Psychoanalytical, linguistic and social theories of humour will be sampled, and the mechanism of humour production and reception will be scrutinized. The humour traditions of different cultures will be compared, and a spectrum of techniques for the translation of humour will be critically examined, with an emphasis on those that are conducive to the maximal preservation or even enhancement of the humour effect of the source texts. Chinese and English works of humour will be selected from famed and anonymous producers with different cultural, social, poetological and ideological backgrounds for analysis and translation or adaptation.

Assessment: 100% coursework