Cultural Norms in Translating Children’s Literature

Abstract

The reader of a translated text is particularly important when the translation is intended for a young audience. The translation must take into account the cultural knowledge of the intended reader. This research looks at the relationships between the translator, the author, and the intended and accidental readers of the source text. It discusses the issue of the low status of children’s books, and translated children’s literature in the literary polysystem. It focuses on the resulted disagreement among translators on the appropriate translational procedure to be followed when translating works with culture specific references (foreignization vs. domestication). It is an attempt to draw the attention to the cultural norms which govern the translation of children’s literature from English into Arabic. The research also examines ‘adaptation’ as the most common translational procedure used in translating children’s works with culture specific items and references. Examples are taken from two works of children’s literature: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Tom Sawyer. The examples reveal incidents of adaptation by means of deletion, replacement and addition.