Creativity in Humor Translation: A Comparative Case Study of The Two Turkish Subtile Translations of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Abstract

ABSTRACT

ŞENTÜRK, Ceren. Creativity in Humor Translation: A Comparative Case Study of the Two Turkish Subtitle Translations of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Master’s Thesis, Ankara, 2018.

This study aims at exploring creativity in humor translation and to find out whether there is a difference in creativity between the professional subtitles and the fansubs. To this end, Holst’s model of creativity (2010, p 1) in translation is employed. In order to investigate creativity in translation, it is important to choose texts that could require the translator to use creative problem-solving strategies. Therefore, in this study, the American comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which has a great number of humorous examples that are of open-ended kind and have no ready-made solutions and its two Turkish subtitle translations have been analyzed. Thus, it can be stated that in this study, creativity in translation is investigated in subtitle translation -a type of screen translation. In order to select the humorous examples from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Ross’ (1998, p 1) humor theories have been employed so that the examples are chosen from an objective and a linguistic point of view rather than by a personal and subjective sense of humor. One of the subtitle translations analyzed in this study is the professional subtitles (from CNBC-e and e2) and the other one is the fansubs (www.turkcealtyazı.com) -a type of non-professional subtitling. Before proceeding with comparing these two subtitles in terms of the use of the creative strategies listed in Holst’s model of creativity in translation, a detailed humor analysis of the ST and the two subtitle translations have been carried out in light of Ross’ humor theories. By means of the humor analysis, the elements that create humor in the ST and the two subtitle translations have been identified. By comparing the humorous elements that have been identified, the translations have been categorized under the relevant strategy listed in Holst’ model of creativity in translation. As a result, the professional subtitles and the fansubs of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have been comparatively analyzed in terms of their creativity. At the end of this comparative analysis, it has been found out that the fansubs are more creative than the professional subtitles regarding the translation of the humorous elements in the Turkish subtitle translations of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This comparative analysis has been carried out by employing Holst’s (2010, p 1) model of creativity in translation. The possible reasons as to why the fansubs are more creative than the professional subtitles are also included at the end of the study.

Keywords creativity in translation, humor, professional subtitling, non-professional subtitling, fansubbing, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.