Perception and Translation of Humour in Post-Colonial Literature:

The Case of Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel

Abstract

In this contribution, the translation of humour is investigated in Wole Soyinka’s (1963) The Lion and the Jewel rendered into French in 1968 by Chuto and Laburthe-Tobra as Le Lion et la Perle. Nigerian literature produced immediately after independence revealed to a large extent the manifestations of humour in such works. Soyinka embellishes his literary master piece with humorous features to create laughter, generate emotional apprehension, show stress, pilot and properly smoothen conversation among the various characters in the text. Translating these humorous elements emanating from a culturally bounded text like Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel,  is a daunting task to the translator due to the fact that the translator needs to take into account the cultural aesthetics, values of the source text in order to ensure the acceptability of the target text to the target reader. Data for the study are culled from The Lion and the Jewel using the Generative Theory of Verbal Humour proposed by Attardo and Raskin (1991) as the theoretical framework. The method involves devoting keen attention to the most indicative examples in the text where the translator’s decision-making process is geared towards facilitating the target reader’s understanding of Soyinka’s humour. The study analyses the translation procedures that contribute to a new model of humour translation in dramatic texts. The paper finds out that the analysis of Soyinka’s humour in the text assists us to determine the cultural aesthetics and linguistic position of Nigerian dramatic literary system on the scale of comedy creation and domestication. It equally reveals the role of translation as a medium for cross-cultural communication. Through the translation of the text into French, the target reader becomes more interested in reading a work  of art that allows them to explore other people’s culture. The paper concludes that the translator’s ability to perceive and translate humour in the text belongs to human trait which develops through time and culture (Hadiati (2008:9).