EXPRESSING HUMOUR IN THE TRANSLATED TERRY PRATCHETT’S FANTASY NOVELS

Abstract

The article deals with the peculiarities of expressing humour in translations of Terry Pratchett’s fantasy novels The Colour of Magic (translated by Yuliia Prokopets), A Hat Full of Sky (translated by Marta Hosovska) and Going Postal (translated by Oleksandr Mykhelson). The attention is focused on the humour actualising in the descriptions of typical humorous characters, situations, and plots; the means of expressing humour conveying the psychological and emotional state of fantasy characters, as well as their moral and ethical qualities are identified; lexical, semantic and stylistic features of conveying humorous situations in fantasy texts are analysed. The works of Terry Pratchett are full of humorous moments – humorous situations and descriptions of characters are common, as well as humorous dialogues, comic proper names, nicknames, and nicknames. Black humour and humorous descriptions of objects are somewhat less common. Fantasy texts successfully reproduce portrait features of the characters and descriptions of nature, fantastic objects, clothes, food, etc. The psychological and emotional state of the characters is often depicted in combination with natural phenomena and object descriptions involving readers in the fantasy world. Translated fantasy literature is gaining popularity and attracts readers with its genre uniqueness. Translators look for their literary approach to translation and use appropriate techniques. Translators successfully convey humorous subtexts, reveal images, and select language tools. Translating humorous plots, descriptions of objects and characters, dialogues between characters, black humour, etc., requires a translator to be creative and imaginative – everyone looks for a unique style using stylistic devices. Comparisons, hyperbole and personification help to reveal the images of magical creatures and objects. Metaphors, epithets and irony are less common. The analysis of the original and translated texts showed that translators add an individual humorous colouring to the translation, which is sometimes absent in the original. This is due to the fact that the Ukrainian language has a richer vocabulary, colouring, humorous expressions, etc.