The Translator Is Hitting the Road – on the Untranslatability of Culture

Abstract

The purpose of the present article is to direct attention to a rather infrequent perspective on translating culturally-embedded concepts. It constitutes an attempt to grade the instances of cultural untranslatability in a source text from translator’s perspective by employing as examples a few culturally humorous utterances from the American TV series The Big Bang Theory. In the initial part of the substantial theoretical section the article launches into the discussion over the position of culture in translation theory, recalling the “cultural turn” of the 1980s and touching upon the relationship between language and culture, while also enumerating the prevalent techniques for translating culture-bound concepts. Since culture can often be reflected in humour, the ensuing part investigates its varieties and approaches to humour in translation. The third part of the section is a discussion over the concept of untranslatability. It ponders upon the dichotomy into linguistic and cultural untranslatability and its purposefulness in the light of the language-kulture debate in linguistic studies. It also offers an insight into approaches to untranslatability, leading to the discussion over its absoluteness and/or gradability. Based on the foregoing, the latter section offers an attempt at grading the instances of untranslatability on the basis of culture-bound humour from The Big Bang Theory TV series. By presenting three examples from the series, the chapter introduces three categories of (un)translatable utterances: culture bumps, complex linguistic hurdles and culture clashes.