The reception of humor based on cultural elements in the Spanish translation of the narrative of Naguib Mahfuz: empirical analysis focused on the translation techniques

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical analysis conducted on the reception of humour based on cultural elements in the Spanish translation of the novels of Naguib Mahfuz. The study was designed to measure the perception of humour in the translation as compared to the original and to reveal, at the same time, any possible connection between the percep- tion of humour and the degree of disclosure of information related to cultural elements, through the use of certain translation techniques. Four questionnaires consisting of 10 segments extracted from the original version and their corresponding real and manipulated translations were submitted to the judgment of native speakers of both languages. The per- ception rate of humour achieved in real translations is no higher than 30%. The findings also indicate that the disclosure of pertinent information can improve the results. But doing so has little effect, because it makes the complicity between sender and receiver disappear from the text, and that complicity is essential for the perception of amusement.