The translation of cultural elements from English into Arabic in Oliver Twist / Tarek Atallah Saleh al-Idhesat

Tarek Atallah Saleh, al-Idhesat (2016) The translation of cultural elements from English into Arabic in Oliver Twist / Tarek Atallah Saleh al-Idhesat. Masters thesis, University of Malaya.

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Abstract

This study is mainly intended to investigate the process of translating the cultural elements from English into Arabic in one of Charles Dickens� master pieces Oliver Twist. The novel has been translated into Arabic several times by different translators; however, one of the most faithful ones (which is the case study of the current research) is presented by the well-known Arabic translator Munir Baalbaki. The collected data in the current study is limited within the first 200 pages of the Arabic version of the translated novel which represent the first 19 chapters of the original one. In this research, three main objectives have been proposed. Firstly, identifying the cultural elements used in the Arabic translation of Charles Dickens� Oliver Twist. Secondly, the study attempts to explore the translation procedures that have been employed to preserve the features and quality of the cultural terms in the target text (TT). Finally, the current study attempts to find out whether the cultural aspects have been domesticated or foreignized based on the type of translation procedure used. It is believed that translating culture-specific terms -especially in literary works- is considered as one of the major challenges that might encounter any translator. However, in the field of translation studies, chiefly during the last few decades, many scholars have contributed to overcome such challenges by suggesting a number of translation theories and procedures. For the sake of collecting and analyzing the cultural elements in the novel, the current research has applied three translation approaches. Firstly, Newmark�s (1988) classification of cultural aspects has been used in order to categorize the target cultural terms. Secondly, Vinay and Darbelnet�s (1995) translation procedures in addition to Newmark�s (1988) �functional equivalence� have been applied in order to explore the types of procedure used by the translator in rendering the culture-specific terms. Finally, through the application of Venuti�s (2008) notion of Foreignization and Domestication, the researcher investigates whether the translator tends to domesticate or foreignize the translated cultural elements based on the choice of translation procedures he makes. The findings of the study have shown that: firstly, the translator tends to use oblique translation procedures (equivalence, transposition, adaptation and modulation) in rendering the vast majority of the cultural elements in the novel. Secondly, direct translation procedures (borrowing, calque and literal translation) are found to be applied in translating some of the cultural elements within certain cultural categories such as: the names of places and names of food and drinks. Finally, the translator tends to domesticate the vast majority of the translated cultural elements which makes them more familiar and understandable for the target readers of the Arabic version of the novel.

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