THE FILM GENRE SITUATION COMEDY – GENRE CHARACTERISTICS AND CHALLENGES FOR THE TRANSLATOR

Abstract

This article aims to consider situational comedy as a specific genre and the challenges that its specifics pose to the translator. The study aims to demonstrate the difficulties that a seemingly so “simple“ and popular genre as situational comedy could create. In the article the genre characteristics are divided into two main groups: extra- and intratextual characteristics. Along with the usual sitcom structure, the setting of the action, the theme, the added laughter and the resilience of the characters, the article also draws attention to the intratextual characteristics with a focus on conveying humour, which is at the core of the genre, through various techniques that require from the translator an unconventional approach in terms of translation strategy, as well as creative solutions in order to preserve the comic elements of the situational comedy.