Socio-political narratives in translated English-Greek news headlines

Abstract

This paper explores interculturality through a cross-disciplinary perspective. It draws on political and translation theory to discuss differences in English-Greek news headlines, which contribute to constructing a different reality in the two environments. As anticipated by critical perspectives to discourse analysis (Wodak 1997; Chilton 2005; Baker 2006; Schiffrin 2009), the text is informed by collective narratives that shape experience. Drawing on 200 pairs of English (source) and Greek (target) news headlines between 2005 and 2009, the study examines (a) aspects of the collective narratives activated by the headlines against dominant narratives in political thinking (Rosen and Wolff 1999), and explores (b) variation in the manner these narratives are implemented through news headlines, in the two environments. Findings show that there is cross-cultural variation in the narrative priorities disseminated through English and Greek news headlines, which echo varied versions of narratives on liberty and rights, justice, progress, and democracy. News headlines of translated articles activate the same socio-political narratives in the source and target languages, but implement them in differing ways, and this can have consequences for the way reality is constructed in different cultures.