Oscar Wilde's Wit: The Question of Translation

In this book the author gathers significant passages from Irish authors and compares them with Wilde's aphorisms and plays. It becomes clear that humour is an instrument to step beyond the boundaries of nationality and culturally stereotyped visions. Stepping beyond national boundaries means also stepping beyond linguistic boundaries: Wilde's creative style, which is not limited by defined linguistic rules, makes it possible. Many Irish authors whose native language is English show that it is possible to be both inside and outside a defining cultural environment. Anglo-Irish authors like Oscar Wilde have two identities: an Irish and an English one, and then their English identity is both familiar and foreign. Under these particular conditions, the effects of humour in Wilde's descriptions of English society derive from the author's individual attitude towards English culture. It is precisely this attitude that any Italian translator tries to reproduce. Whether the translator manages or not to obtain a text as witty and hilarious as the original, is a question that only a careful linguistic and semantic analysis can solve.