Translated Political Opinion Articles: A Narrative Approach

Abstract

The spread of political narratives across language boundaries lies on the shoulders of translators. They play a major role in legitimizing or delegitimizing certain narratives over others. This study utilizes narrative theory and the notion of framing as backgrounds to analyze translated articles and explore the translation strategies translators use as they translate into Arabic articles written originally in English by Thomas Friedman. This study’s significance comes from its exploration of narratives in translated political opinion articles. It seeks to answer the question, how has Alittihad newspaper carried out its translation of Friedman’s articles with respect to narrative theory? The study reveals Alittihad’s tendency to reframe Friedman’s articles to avoid framing public figures or countries negatively and elevate the formality of the articles’ language. It also shows that the newspaper uses mostly deletion as a translation strategy to reframe the articles.