People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University of Frères Mentouri - Constantine 1 Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of Letters and the English Language N°ordre:68/D3C/2018 N°serie:13/Ang/2018 Investigating the Intricacies of Cultural Translation: A Descriptive and Comparative Study The Case of the English Subtitles of the Algerian Films ‘Mostefa Ben Boulaid’ and ‘Chronicle of the Smoldering Years’ Thesis Submitted to the Department of Letters and English in Candidacy for the Degree of LMD Doctorate in Applied Languages Candidate: Supervisor: Wafa Safinez BENLAHRACHE Prof. Riad BELOUAHEM Board of Examiners: Chairman: Prof. Youcef BEGHOUL University of Mentouri- Constantine Supervisor: Prof. Riad BELOUAHEM University of Mentouri- Constantine Member: Prof. Hacene HAMADA Ecole Normale Supérieure- Constantine Member: Dr. Madjda CHELLI University of Mentouri- Constantine Member: Dr. Sarah MERROUCHE University of Oum El Bouaghi Member: Dr. Charif BENBOULAID University of Batna 2 21-06-2018 2017-2018 Dedications To my dear mother, the person without whom this work would have never seen light To my late father, the person who we really wish was there to see this work To my only brother, for his heartfelt care and valuable assistance To my husband, for his constant support and positive encouragement To my extended family and my family in law, my friends and everyone who has been concerned about the completion of this work i Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Riad BELOUAHEM for offering me advice and guidance throughout the different steps of this work. I am deeply grateful for his faith in me and for all his insightful comments and suggestions. I am greatly indebted to my mother for everything that she has done for me during my entire life and more particularly during the past years. Nothing I can say will ever convey the amount of gratitude I owe to her. I would also like to express my warmest thanks to Prof. Youcef BEGHOUL, Prof. Haouès AHMED SID, Prof. Nacif LABED and Mr. YACHIR for their valuable help and good support. I extend special thanks to Prof. Jan PEDERSEN and Prof. Kristin REINKE for their enlightening advice and for being so kind to answer all my questions. I would like to address sincere thanks to all the members of the jury for reading and evaluating this work. My thanks also go to all the teachers who readily accepted to complete the questionnaire and provide very useful information. Finally, I thank everyone who helped me in any way all through the course of this research and acknowledge the real help and support of my friends and colleagues, especially Dr. Amel ALOUACHE, Dr. Meriem MAZRI and Mr. Yahia ALMI. ii Abstract The research at hand attempts to look into the way cultural specificity is rendered in Algerian film subtitles and tries to uncover the underlying reasons behind the choice of translation strategy, both at the local and global levels. With regard to issues of power imbalance and cultural domination, the work also aims to explore whether the translation behaviour is norm- governed and whether domesticating strategies are applied as a norm when translating into English. Time change is another influencing factor that this study sets out to examine. Therefore, it was hypothesised that regular patterns in the translation behaviour would prove the existence of norms and justify the translator’s decision-making, that the latter is influenced by the socio-historical context in which it took place and that the use of foreignisation would invalidate the claim that domestication is the norm when translating into English. To test these hypotheses, a comparative study of the English subtitles of a selection of two Algerian films, namely Mostefa Ben Boulaid’ and ‘Chronicle of the Smoldering Years’, is conducted, based on Pedersen’s (2011) model of analysis. In addition, a questionnaire is administered to teachers of subtitling at European universities, in order to gain better insight into the previous concerns and reinforce the findings of the main empirical investigation. The results obtained support all the hypotheses presented. The product and the process-oriented analyses reveal that both translations conform to normative behaviour, as regular patterns in the rendering of cultural specificity are observed. They are also influenced by socio-historical variables because they are approached using opposite general methods; and the use of foreignisation in one of them invalidates the claim that translation into English favours domestication as a norm. In the light of these findings, a tendency to foreignise Algerian films that belong to the historical genre in their translation from Algerian Arabic into English is assumed. However, further research built on a more extensive and varied corpus is recommended to make any certain generalisations. iii List of Abbreviations AVT: Audiovisual Translation CA: Classical Arabic Cf.: confer/conferatur (Latin for: compare) CNCA : Centre National de la Cinématographie et de l'Audiovisuel CSI: Culture-Specific Items DVD: Digital Versatile Disc ECR: Extralinguistic Cultural Reference ESIST: European Association for Studies in Screen Translation FIGS: France, Italy, Germany and Spain GPS: Global Positioning System ICC: Intercultural Communication LSP: Language for Specific Purposes MSA: Modern Standard Arabic O.N.C.I.C. : Office National Pour le Commerce et l'Industrie Cinématographique SA: Standard Arabic SC: Source Culture SDHH: Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing ST: Source Text TC: Target Culture TT: Target Text UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation iv List of Tables Table 1: Examples of Big ‘C’ and Little ‘c’ Culture Themes...................................................10 Table 2: AVT modes according to different recent classifications…………………..……….82 Table 3: Frequency of Teachers’ Native Language Use in Subtitling Training………...…..115 Table 4: Teachers’ Definition of the Concept of ‘Culture’.....................................................117 Table 5: Frequency of Students’ Exposure to Course Types……….……….………………119 Table 6: The Significance of Culture in the Training Programmes……………………...….120 Table 7: Teaching Approaches of Culture..............................................................................122 Table 8: Proper Cultural Transfer on Film Appreciation……………………………………123 Table 9: Difficulty in Translating Culture from Dialect.........................................................124 Table 10: Recommended General Method in Film Subtitling................................................125 Table 11: Strategy Used when Dealing with Culture-Specific References in Film Subtitling................................................................................................................129 Table 12: Reasons Influencing the Choice of Certain Strategies……………………………130 Table 13: Factors Affecting the Quality of Subtitles…………. ……………………………132 Table 14: Necessity of an Academic Degree in Subtitling………………………………….133 Table 15: Development of Subtitling over Time…………………………………………....134 Table 16: Teachers’ Satisfaction with the Teaching of Culture in University………...…….136 Table 17: Translation Unit N° 1..............................................................................................152 Table 18: Translation Unit N° 2…………..…………………………………………………152 Table 19: Translation Unit N° 3..............................................................................................153 Table 20: Translation Unit N° 4............................................................................................. 153 Table 21: Translation Unit N° 5..............................................................................................153 Table 22: Translation Unit N° 6..............................................................................................154 Table 23: Translation Unit N° 7..............................................................................................154 Table 24: Translation Unit N° 8..............................................................................................155 Table 25: Translation Unit N° 9..............................................................................................155 Table 26: Translation Unit N° 10............................................................................................155 Table 27: Translation Unit N° 11............................................................................................156 Table 28: Translation Unit N° 12............................................................................................156 Table 29: Translation Unit N° 13............................................................................................157 Table 30: Translation Unit N° 14, 15......................................................................................157 Table 31: Translation Units N° 16 to N° 38............................................................................158 v Table 32: Translation Unit N° 39............................................................................................159 Table 33: Translation Unit N° 40............................................................................................160 Table 34: Translation Unit N° 41............................................................................................160 Table 35: Translation Unit N° 42............................................................................................161