Translating the Humor, Translating Jardiel Poncela

Overview & Synopsis

The theatrical production of the playwright Enrique Jardiel Poncela (1901-1952) offered Spanish audiences of the time a theatre that posed a challenge of innovation based on a new conception of humour. The numerous mechanisms of the verbal humour that sustain the script constitute a real challenge in translating the keys of this comedy due to the constant alteration of the code in the different levels of the language. After outlining some essential lines concerning the author’s dramaturgy, this volume will focus on one of Jardiel’s most successful comedies, Los ladrones somos gente honrada (1941), providing the first full Italian translation of the play. The aim is to stimulate reflection on the play’s translation rendering in Italian (also from a didactic perspective) based on the wide range of comic solutions adopted for the playful use of language.