The (Im)Possibilities of Translating Literary Nonsense: Attempts at Taming Iconotextual Monstrosity in Hungarian Domestications of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”

Abstract

The chapter explores the (un)translatability of literary nonsense designed for children. I study how the interaction between verbal narrative and visual illustration, oral performance and written transcription, source text and translation can be regarded as transmedia storytelling. I tackle the (im)possibilities of translating Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem, “Jabberwocky” on three levels. First, I comment on the text’s metafantastic/metanarrative reflection on the reader as a translator /interpreter who will inevitably both decode and reproduce nonsense. Second, I focus on illustration as a translation of the written narrative. Finally, I share some thoughts on the cultural transposition, linguistic transfer, and creative individual solutions emerging in domesticating Hungarian verbal and visual translations of “Jabberwocky.”