A Comparison of Arabic Literature Translation into English and Swedish : Inverstigating Domestication in the Translation of Arabic Cultural Words - Imarat Yaqubyan as acase in point

Abstract:

Imarat Yaqubyan is a contemporary Arabic novel that encompasses an intensive and variable Arabic culture; this study contains a survey in tables of cultural words, according to Newmark’s categories, “material culture”, “social culture”, “originations”, and  “gestures and habits”, as well as their correspondences in the English and the Swedish translated novel versions. In this tripled language study, Arabic, English and Swedish, I undertake a qualitative comparison between the translation strategies used by each translator of the English and Swedish versions. For this purpose I apply the taxonomy of translation strategies established by Pedersen, which is divided first into SL-oriented strategies categorized into “Retention”, “Specification” and “Direct Translation”, and secondly the TL-oriented that includes “Generalization”, “Substitution” and “Omission”, as well as the “Official Equivalent”. Through my analyses process, I link Newmark’s metaphors types, terminology and the seven procedures of translating metaphors with Pedersen’s strategies.  In this study, Pedersen’s SL and TL-oriented translation strategies are considered to correspond to Venuti’s terminology of domestication and foreignization. Conclusions are drawn about the use of domesticating strategies in certain cultural words categories of both English and Swedish versions. The study devises the term “False Domestication”.