Humour ‘lost’ and ‘found’ in the Translation of Children’s Literature: Notes on the Vietnamese Translation of Moravia’s Stories of Prehistory

Abstract

This study analyses the trasportation of humour effects in the Vietnamese translation of Alberto Moravia’s book Storie della Preistoria (1982). After presenting some fundamental aspects of the translation of children’s books and humour translation, the study focuses on some typologies of humour found in Moravia’s book and the strategies adopted in the Vietnamese translation of humorous moments which are linked to the original language and culture, such as poems, puns, proverbs and paraproverbs, and food names.