El silencio como tema.

As has been previously mentioned, subtitling is a relatively a new field in the Arab world. And there is a sort of shortage in terms of the studies on the nature of subtitling. Thawabteh (2011: 3, cited in Altahri 2013) states that when searching for articles that contain the word “Arabic” in Meta and Babel, only 59 publications were found one of which deals with subtitling. This indicates that studies on audiovisual translation in the Arab world do not mesh with the status of the different types of audiovisual translation, especially subtitling and dubbing which are more commonly used in many Arab countries.

Similarly, there is a huge shortage of research in the field of subtitling humour in Arabic. Few studies have addressed the issue of subtitling and dubbing of humour from English into Arabic. Apossible reason for this shortage is the absence of undergraduate modules and specialised postgraduate courses in the field of audiovisual translation at universities and institutions in most of the Arab countries. However, despite the fact that audiovisual translation

has not yet gain currency in the Arab world, some interesting studies have been conducted dealing with subtitling of humour. The studies have tried to shape the early stages of the literature on the subtitling of humour in the Arab world.

One of these studies is conducted by Alkadi (2010), in which three types of jokes in the American sitcom Friends are discussed: jokes that rely on sexual references, jokes that rely on puns, and jokes that rely on cultural references. In the study, each instance of humour and its translation are analysed, and then alternative translations are suggested based on skopos theory. The study included an experiment, in which three episodes of Friends were resubtitled based on skopos theory. Then the resubtitled episode and their official translation were shown to 10 subjects who were requestd to compare the two translations. The aim of the experiment is to measure the effectiveness of the suggested translation approach. Alkadi (2010: 142) argues that, based on the experiment, the functional approach, namely skopos theory (11) has proved to be helpful in bridging the gap between the ST and TT. This was evident in the audience reaction and appreciation of humour in the subtitled three episodes.

Alkadi argues that skopos theory gives translators the space to tackle humour in a way that the humorous effect can be achieved. In other words, skopos theory gives the green light to translators to render the ST according to the “purpose” of the translation. In the case of translating humorous texts, humour is the “purpose”, and the strategies used by the translators should fulfil the function of humour and make it accessible to the TT audience (2010: 20).

In line with Alkadi (2010), Alharthi (2011) tackles the issue of humour in the American sitcom Friends. In his study, Alharthi presents some problematic issues that faced him when he subtitled a whole episode of Friends through which he provides some suggestions and recommendations for the subtitling of different instances of humour. Alharthi (2011: 25) argues that, based on the suggested Arabic subtitles, adhering to the rules of skopos theory is a possible solution for the subtitling of humour from Engish into Arabic, as these rules give the subtitler much freedom to modify the ST to achieve the humorous effects.

Jazmawi (2013) examined the problem of translating popular culture allusions in three comic shows: Friends, The Flintstones, and The Simpsons. In addition to the attempt to measure the effectiveness of the selected translations of allusions in the target language, the study provides alternative translation for allusions. Jazmawi argues that the translation strategies, such as extra allusive guidance, explicitation, reduction, and simplification are the most suitable techniques for popular culture allusions. She also states that the huge cultural gap between English and Arabic, and the constraints of subtitling are the main reasons behind the loss of humorous and allusive effect in the TT (2013: 101 &102).

Unlike the previous studies on humour, Abu Ya’qoub (2013) addresses the influence of the types of audience on the translation of humour in seven TV programmes from English into Arabic. The study examines the translation strategies adopted by Arab translators to render humour in children’s and family TV shows in respect to the viewers’ age and cognitive development. Abu Ya’qoub claims that a translator should not render instances of humour in the ST that contain inappropriate references (e.g., taboo words) into Arabic to avoid violating the target children and adults’ expectations.

3.6 Conclusion

This chapter has attempted to provide a thorough discussion of the major studies on humour translation and subtitling. In this chapter, there has been an emphasis on the major difficulties involved in rendering humour from one language into another with a particular reference to studies relevant to the current study (e.g., Attardo 2002, Pedersen 2005, and Zabalbeascoa 2005). Furthermore, the chapter analysed the technical, cultural, and linguistic problems of subtitling humour. Two important issues were presented: culture in humour and language-based humour.

In line with the discussion of the complexity of humour subtitling, various strategies offered by different scholars were presented such as those proposed by Pedersen (2005) and Delabastita (1993 & 1996). Two of these studies (Attardo 2002 and Pedersen 2005) will be used as methodological frameworks in this research.

Chapter 4