Intercultural issues in the translation of parody; or, getting Alice to speak French and Afrikaans in Wonderland

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The classic Victorian tale by Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), hasbeen enjoyed by adults and children alike in many countries and in many languages. Inthis book, Carroll parodies the accepted style of children's books of the Victorian Age bymocking the moralistic and realistic expectations. All the poems in the book are parodiesof once familiar nursery rhymes, which often conveyed a moral lesson.Translating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a challenging task, as it poses culturespecific,text-specific and language-specific problems. Although the book has beentranslated into more than 70 languages, it seems to be more popular in some culturesthan in others. At the same time, some cultures seem to be content with 'oldertranslations, while others need 'updated versions. Cultural differences seem to play arole in these preferences.The aim of this study is to examine the French and Afrikaans translations of a parodiedpoem (as found in chapter 2 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) from an interculturalperspective. In both cases, the translators seem to have found equivalents in theirrespective cultures that would be acceptable to their target readers.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University