Publications
Publication details [#676]
Weissbrod, Rachel. 1996. Curiouser and curiouser: Hebrew translation of wordplay in Alice's adventures in Wonderland. In Delabastita, Dirk, ed. Wordplay & translation. Special issue of The Translator. Studies in Intercultural Communication 2 (2): 219–234. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Publication type
Article in Special issue
Publication language
English
Keywords
Source language
Target language
Title as subject
Abstract
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, wordplay has a central role in producing an ambivalent text, that is, one which can function in children’s literature and in adult literature. This paper examines, from a norm-oriented approach, how instances of wordplay were treated in three Hebrew translations. The first translation (1923), was subject to a norm which required acceptability at the socio-cultural level. Instances of wordplay were accordingly replaced by new ones that were rooted in Jewish tradition. In the second translation (1951), the treatment of wordplay was determined by another norm, one which required a rephrasing in an elevated style. Only in the third translation (1987) was the translator sufficiently free from socio-cultural and stylistic dictates to cope with Carroll’s wordplay with all the means available. In this last translation, elements which are foreign to Carroll’s word or style were introduced only insofar as they helped the translator replace the original wordplay.
Source : Based on abstract in journal