City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Al-Daragi, A. (2016). Tensions between didacticism, entertainment and translatorial practices: deletion and omission in the Arabic translations of Harry Potter. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City, University of London) This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/16071/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Tensions between didacticism, entertainment and translatorial practices: deletion and omission in the Arabic translations of Harry Potter. Alaa Abdul Hussain Al-Daragi Thesis submitted to the City University London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Arts and Social Sciences July 2016 i City, University of London Northampton Square London EC1V 0HB United Kingdom T +44 (0)20 7040 5060 THE FOLLOWING PARTS OF THIS THESIS HAVE BEEN REDACTED FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS: Volume 2 pp. 4-116: Appendix 1 (Book 1) (ST.1) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. pp. 117-280: Appendix 2(Book 2) (ST.2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Volume 3 pp. 3-141: Appendix 3 (Book 3) (ST.3) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. pp. 142-259: Appendix 4 (Book 4) (ST.4) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Volume 4 pp. 3-78: Appendix 5 (Book 5) (ST.5) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. pp. 79-109: Appendix 6 (Book 6) (ST.6) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. pp. 110-138: Appendix 7 (Book 7) (ST.7) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. pp. 144-145: Appendix 8. Figure 1, Illustrations for front covers. THE FOLLOWING PARTS OF THIS THESIS HAVE BEEN REDACTED FOR DATA PROTECTION/CONFIDENTIALITY REASONS: Volume 4 pp. 138-143: Appendix 8: Personal communication with the translator of the books. The appendices are stored electronically at City, University of London Library. www.city.ac.uk Academic excellence for business and the professions Contents Volume 1 Thesis Contents ii Tables and Charts v Acknowledgements vii Declaration viii Abstract ix Abbreviations x Transliteration Rules (Arabic-English) xi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1. Harry Potter series 2 1.2. The genre of fantasy 7 1.3. A brief introduction to English children’s literature 17 1.4.1. Arabic children’s literature prior to the 19th century 22 1.4.2. Developments of Arabic children’s literature in the 19th century and beyond 26 1.4.3. Developments of Arabic children’s literature after the 1960s 33 1.5. Characteristics of Arabic children’s literature in relation to systems and norms 35 1.6. Descriptive translation studies (DTS) 51 1.7. Aims and Objectives 53 1.8. Hypotheses 54 1.9. Outline and summaries of Chapters 55 Chapter 2 Literature Review 57 2.1. Deletions, summarisations and omissions 62 ii 2.1.1. Characters 65 2.1.2. Plot points, events, situations and details 66 2.1.3. CSIs 69 2.1.4. Proper names (characters’ names) 72 2.1.5. Dialect or manner of speech 76 2.2. Ideology 80 2.3. Domestication and foreignisation 90 2.4. Translation shift 97 2.5. Translation problems 106 2.6. Translation effect and procedure 111 Chapter 3 Methodology 123 3.1. Stages of the methodology for this study 123 Chapter 4 Reduction to characters 154 4. Reduction to characters’ roles 157 4.1. Deletions and omissions to characters’ utterances 157 4.2. Deletion of characters’ actions and descriptions 171 4.3. Deletion of characters’ thoughts and feelings 178 4.4. Deletion to mixed categories and description of events 182 4.5. Deletion and shift and deletion and rewording 187 4.6. Taboos and attenuations 191 Chapter 5 Deletion to plot points and other important features 198 5.1. Deletion to setting and location 198 5.2. Deletion of magical words, various words and items related to the Harry Potter world 205 iii 5.3. Deletion of words 210 5.4. Deletion to descriptions of events and details 220 5.5. Deletion of plot points and events 223 5.5.1. Large deletions in introductory chapters 225 5.5.2. Large deletions in final chapters 229 5.6.1. Large deletions in middle or climactic chapters 234 Chapter 6 Deletion and omission of characters’ dialects, names and other features (transliteration and generalisation) 241 6.1. Omission and deletion to dialect 241 6.2. Deletion and omission of characters’ names 246 6.2.1. Deletion and substitution of characters’ names 246 6.2.2. Omission of characters’ names 258 6.3. Omission to magical words or words associated with the Harry Potter world (transliteration) 262 6.4. Generalisation 264 6.5. Mistranslations and translation errors 283 Chapter 7 Findings, outcomes and conclusion 289 7.1. Didacticism 289 7.2. Lack of professionalism 311 7.3. Initial norms (acceptability and adequacy) 315 7.4. Matricial norms 321 7.5. Summary of findings 323 7.6. Limitations, contributions and recommendations 324 Bibliography 330 iv Volume 2 Data Appendix 1 (Book 1) (ST.1) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 2 Appendix 2 (Book 2) (ST.2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 117 Volume 3 Data Appendix 3 (Book 3) (ST.3) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 1 Appendix 4 (Book 4) (ST.4) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 142 Volume 4 Data Appendix 5 (Book 5) (ST.5) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 1 Appendix 6 (Book 6) (ST.6) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 79 Appendix 7 (Book 7) (ST.7) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 110 Volume 4 Tables and Figures Appendices (8-12) 138 Appendix 8 Tables for Chapter Three 138 Appendix 9 Tables for Chapter Four 148 Appendix 10 Tables for Chapter Five 183 Appendix 11 Tables for Chapter Six 218 Appendix 12 Tables for Chapter Seven 277 List of Figures, Tables and Charts Figure 1.1 lists of the titles and dates of publication of the Harry Potter novels and their Arabic translations along with their translators, editors and reviewers 6 Figure 3.1 Categories of deletion 131 Figure 3.2 Categories of omission 132 Table 3.3 Categories of deletions to characters 135 Table 3.4 Categories of deletions to plot points, setting, various words and others 137 v Table 3.5 Categories of omissions 139 Table 3.6 List of the selected chapters of the Harry Potter novels and their appendices 141 Table 6.1 Deletion of characters’ names 249 Table 6.2 Location, frequency and percentages for categories of generalisation across the series 266 Figure 7.1 Number of deleted examples across the series 291 Figure 7.2 Chart shows percentages of deleted examples across the series 292 Figure 7.3 Chart shows percentages and number of deleted words across Chapter 18 of Book 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dobby’s Reward 294 vi Acknowledgements I would like to pay special thanks and show my warmest and deepest appreciation and endless gratitude to my first supervisor Dr. Karen Seago for her sincere effort, continuous guidance, friendly attitude, inexhaustive patience and precious academic knowledge in helping me accomplish this thesis. For this I will be eternally grateful. My profound appreciation goes for my second supervisor Dr. Julie Wheelwright for her valuable assistance and advice in completing the thesis. Special thanks and gratitude also go to Professor Amanda Hopkinson, Dr. Fouad Abdelrazek and Ms. Evelyn Reisinger for their valued assistance and comments. Furthermore, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to examiners Professor Gillian Lathey and Dr. Sameh Hanna for their valuable feedback in accomplishing this thesis. Finally, but most importantly, this thesis could not have been completed without the full moral support and inspiration of my loving family, in particular my beloved shining sun, my mother, for her constant encouragement throughout. My deepest gratitude to the brightest stars in my life: my wife Rebeca and my daughters Samara and Noor, for their constant help, care and support in this challenging and interesting venture. vii Declaration I grant powers of discretion to the University Librarian to allow this thesis to be copied in whole or part without further reference to me as the author. This permission covers only single copies made for study purposes, subject to the normal conditions of acknowledgment. viii ABSTRACT This study investigates the translation of the well-known Harry Potter fantasy series in the context of translation of children’s literature from English into Arabic; from 2002 this series was translated into Arabic by an Egyptian publishing company specialising in children’s literature. This area is still relatively unexplored in Arabic and in need of further research, given the great degree of difference between these two languages. The main foci of this study are the deletions, summarisations (actual textual or linguistic units that are deleted) and omissions (meaning or semantic load that is omitted) that occur in the Arabic translation of the series.