Publications

Publication details [#96]

Delabastita, Dirk. 1993. There's a double tongue: an investigation into the translation of Shakespeare's wordplay, with special reference to Hamlet (Approaches to Translation Studies 11). Amsterdam: Rodopi. 522 pp.
Publication type
Monograph
Publication language
English
Keywords
linguistic approach=linguistics | semantics | strategy=procedure | theory=translation theory=interpreting theory | word play=wordplay=pun
Source language
English
Target language
Dutch | French | German
Person as a subject
Shakespeare, William
Title as subject
Hamlet
Main ISBN
90-5183-495-0

Abstract

This book critically examines the cliché that wordplay defies translation, replacing it by a theory and a case study that aim to come to grips with the reality of wordplay and its translation. What are the possible modes of wordplay translation? What are the various, sometimes conflicting constraints prompting translators in certain situations to go for one strategy rather than another? Ample illustration is provided from Hamlet and other Shakespearean texts and several Dutch, French, and German renderings. The study exemplifies how theory can usefully be integrated into a description-oriented approach to translation. Much of the argument also rests on the definition of wordplay as an open-ended and historically variable category. The book's concerns range from the linguistic and textual properties of Shakespeare's punning and its translation to matters of historical poetics and ideology. The book is concluded by an anthology of the puns in Hamlet, including a brief semantic analysis of each and a selection of diverse translations.
Source : Based on publisher information

Reviewed by

Zlatnar Moe, Marija. 2004. Review of There's a double tongue: an investigation into the translation of Shakespeare's wordplay, with special reference to Hamlet . Perspectives 12 (2) : 150–151.
Mavrikakis, Catherine. 1994. Review of There's a double tongue: an investigation into the translation of Shakespeare's wordplay, with special reference to Hamlet . In Chapdelaine, Annick and Gillian Lane-Mercier, eds. Traduire les sociolectes [Translating sociolects]. Special issue of Traduction Terminologie Rédaction (TTR) 7 (2): 210–213.
Geest, Dirk De. 1996. Review of There's a double tongue. In Delabastita, Dirk, ed. Wordplay & translation. Special issue of The Translator 2 (2): 328–332.
Israël, Fortunato. 1995. Review of There's a double tongue: an investigation into the translation of Shakespeare's wordplay, with special reference to Hamlet . Meta 40 (4) : 655–656.