The Treatment of Cultural Items in the Translation of Children's Literature
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Treatment of Cultural Items in the Translation of Children's Literature The case of Harry Potter in Arabic WafaDUKMAK Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Modern Languages and Cultures March,2012 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. -ii- Acknowledgements My very grateful thanks to the many people who have helped and encouraged me over the course of this thesis. My greatest thanks are of course to Damascus University for their generous sponsorship of my studies, which covered an MA degree in addition to the preparation of this thesis. Thanks also to my Damascus University internal supervisor, Prof. Salma Haddad for her kind support. Special thanks are also due to the University of Leeds librarians for the provision of needed resources and training, to the research postgraduate officer (Mrs. Karen Priestley) for kindly responding to any queries, to the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and the Staff and Departmental Development Unit for the valuable training courses they provided, to Dr. Zahia Salhi who partly supervised this thesis for her help and kind support, to my postgraduate colleagues at the department for sharing experience and advice, and finally, but most importantly, to my supervisor, Professor Jeremy Munday to whom lowe my deepest gratitude for his sympathy and patience, and above all his continued professional support which made the completion of this thesis possible. This thesis would have not also been possible without the great support of my dear husband Osama, who stood by me all the way, my parents who encouraged me from the beginning to the end, and my little angels Ali and Sarah, who bring light into my life every day. - iii - Abstract Title: The Treatment of Cultural Items in the Translation of Children's Literature Sub-title: The case of Harry Potter in Arabic Keywords: Translation theory, children's literature, cultural references, translation into Arabic, Harry Potter in translation. The present study is located within the framework of descriptive translation studies proposed by Toury (1995). Its main concern is the investigation of the treatment of cultural references, names and wordplay in the translation of children's literature into Arabic. The subject of the analysis covers three books from the famous series of Harry Potter by the English author J.K. Rowling and their published Arabic translations. Detailed analysis of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which are translated into Arabic by different translators is performed with the aim of uncovering the translation norms of each translator. The third book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was also translated by fans of Harry Potter in the Arab world. Comparisons between the official and fan TTs are also made. The analysis in Chapters five, six and seven shows that there is no clear coordination among the three official translators despite being commissioned by the same publishing House. While both of the translators of the Philosopher's Stone and the Goblet of Fire norms fluctuate between 'adequacy' and 'acceptability', the latter undertakes a distorting unstated abridgment of the original. The official translator of the Half- Blood Prince has the strongest norms among all with a clear tendency towards 'adequacy', while the fans lean more towards the pole of 'acceptability'. - IV- Contents Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Contents iv Figures and Tables x Abbreviations ••.•.•.•.••••..••••.•••.•••••.•••.•••••.•.•.•••..••••.•••••.•••.••••••••••••.•.•••.•••••••••••••••.•••.•xii Transliteration Rules (Arabic-English) xiii Introduction 1 0.1. The Data 2 0.2. The Research Questions 4 0.3. The Meth.odology 5 0.4. Division of Chapters 5 0.5. Descriptive Translation Studies 7 Chapter 1 Children's Literature in the Arab World 12 1.1. On Defining Children's Literature .12 1.2. Children's Literature in the Arab World 16 1.2.1. The Origins of Children's Literature in Arabic History 16 1.2.2. The Position of Children's Literature in the Arab World 23 1.2.3. The Problems 24 1.3. Research on Arabic Children's Literature: Literature Review 34 1.4. Summary 38 Chapter 2 Theoretical Approaches to the Translation of Children's Literature....................................................................................................... 40 2.1. Introduction 40 2.2. Gote Klingberg (1986) 43 2.3. Aixela (1996) 46 2.3.1. Procedures of conservation 47 2.3.2. Procedures of substitution 48 2.3.3. Other potential procedures 49 2.4. Eirleys E. Davies (2003) 50 2.4.1. Preservation 51 2.4.2. Addition 52 2.4.3. Omission 52 2.4.4. Globalization 53 2.4.5. Localization 53 -v- 2.4.6. Transformation 54 2.4.7. Creation 54 2.5. Discussion of the Models 54 2.5.1. Preservation 57 2.5.2. Explicitation 59 2.5.3. Standardization 61 2.5.4. Naturalization 62 2.5.5. Deletion 62 2.5.6. Compensation 64 2.5.7. Ideological adaptation 64 2.5.8. Cultural transplantation 65 2.6. Summary 66 Chapter 3 Culture-related References in Translation 67 3.1. Introduction 67 3.2. Klingberg (1986) 67 3.2.1. Literary References 67 3.2.2. Foreign language in the source text. 69 3.2.3. References to mythology and popular belief. 70 3.2.4. Historical, religious and political background 71 3.2.5. Buildings and home furnishing, food 72 3.2.6. Customs and practice, play and games 73 3.2.7. Flora and Fauna 73 3.2.8. Personal names, titles, names of domestic animals, names of objects , II' •••••••••••••• 1.74 3.2.9. Geographical nam.es 77 3.2.10. Weights an.dmeasures 77 3.3. Aixela (1996) 78 3.4. Davies (2003) 79 3.4.1. Food items 80 3.4.2. Toponym.s 82 3.4.3. Wordplay 82 3.5. Discussion of the Models 84 3.6. Summary 86 Chapter 4 Literary Names and Wordplay in Translation 87 4.1. Introduction 87 4.2. The Translation of Literary Names 87 - VI - 4.2.1. Features of proper names 87 4.2.2. Typology of proper names 89 4.2.3. Procedures for dealing with literary names in translation 93 4.2.3.1. Non-translation, reproduction, copying 93 4.2.3.2. Non-translation plus additional explanation 93 4.2.3.3. Replacement of a personal name by a common noun 94 4.2.3.4. Phonetic or morphological adaptation to the target language 94 4.2.3.5. Replacement by a counterpart in the target language (exonym) 94 4.2.3.6. Replacement by a more widely known name from the source culture or an internationally known name with the same function 94 4.2.3.7. Replacement by another name from the target language (substitution) 95 4.2.3.8. Translation (of names with a particular connotation) 95 4.2.3.9. Replacement by a name with another or additional connotation 95 4.2.3.1 O.Deletion 95 4.2.4. The Translator's Motives 96 4.3. The Translation ofWordplay 100 4.3.1. Definition of wordplay 100 4.3 .2. Typology of wordplay in Harry Potter l 01 4.3.2.1. Acronyms l0l 4.3 .2.2. Alliteration 101 4.3.2.3. Anagrams 102 4.3.2.4. Antonomasia 102 4.3.2.5. Epithet. 102 4.3 .2.6. Exoticism 102 4.3.2.7. Inversion 102 4.3.2.8. Irony 102 4.3.2.9. Onomatopoeia 103 4.3.2.1 O.Parallelism 103 4.3.2.11. Pun 103 4.3.2.12. Spoonerism l 04 4.3.3. Procedures for dealing with wordplay in translation l 04 4.3.3.1. Pun -+ pun l04 - vii- 4.3.3.2. Pun __.non-pun 104 4.3.3.3. Pun __.related rhetorical device 104 4.3.3.4. Pun __. 0 104 4.3.3.5. Pun ST = pun TT 104 4.3.3.6. Non-pun __.pun 104 4.3.3.7. Zero __.pun 105 4.3.3.8. Editorial techniques 105 4.4. The Functions of onomastic wordplay in Harry Potter 105 4.5. Summary 109 Chapter Five Analysis of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone •••••••••••••••111 5.1. Introduction 111 5.2. Cultural References in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 111 5.2.1. Literary references 113 5.2.2. Foreign language in the source text.. 114 5.2.3. References to mythology and popular belief.. 116 5.2.4. Buildings and home furnishing, objects and clothes 117 5.2.5. Food items 121 5.2.6. Customs and practices, play and games .124 5.2.7. Flora and Fauna 129 5.2.8. Weights and Measures 132 5.3. Names 134 5.3.1. Personal names, nicknames and titles 135 5.3.2. Names of magical animals, pets and objects .139 5.3.3. Toponyms 141 5.4. Word-play 143 5.5. Summary 144 Chapter 6 Analysis of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 146 6.1. Introduction 146 6.2. Abridgment 146 6.3. Cultural References in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 150 6.3.1. Literary references 1SO 6.3.2 Foreign language in the source text.. 151 6.3.3. References to mythology and popular belief.. 152 6.3.4 Buildings and home furnishing, objects and clothes .153 6.3.5.