The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

1andra2023
Apr. 20, 2023, 2:45 am

Is this a good book to write about in my B.A thesis about translation studies? What aspects should I take into consideration? (Puns, satire, wordplay etc)

2thorold
Apr. 20, 2023, 5:17 am

Obvious reaction (but you must know that already) your tutor/supervisor is a much better point of reference than asking a random bunch of people on the internet. We don’t know anything about the aims and structure of the course you’re taking or the scope of the dissertation. Or even which languages are involved in the translation studies you’re looking at.

The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy is a cult book that lots of people know intimately, and that hardcore fans will probably mostly want to read in the original (the same sort of people who think science-fiction humour is cool will also think reading in English is cool), but it’s also from a generation or two ago — a book that made fun of something very like the internet before there was such a thing as the internet — so I expect you’ll have to look at questions about what kind of reader a translation is aimed at. Maybe also at the slightly unusual background of the book as a novelisation of a radio series (later turned into a TV series and a movie, amongst other things), and at the way translators deal with the specifically British cultural references and at the intertextual references to science fiction books and movies.

3Cecrow
Apr. 20, 2023, 5:24 am

Invented words and concepts come into play, and whether the humor will translate well.

4andyl
Apr. 20, 2023, 6:01 am

>2 thorold:

Yeah and as part of its journey there are differences between the version for the US market and the version for the UK market (or at least the editions I have seen).

5InfoChallenges
Mai 12, 2023, 5:36 pm

Babelfish versus Google Translate?