Translating the Symbolic Hunting Series in Golding’s Lord Of The Flies from English into Arabic: A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective

Khaled Al-Zu’Bi,Aniswal Abdul-Ghani

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijclts.v.5n.2p.39

Abstract

This study comes as a response to the need for comparative assessment and evaluation studies of stylistic differences between English and Arabic in the field of literary translation in the Arab World. The main objective of this explanatory, analytical and comparative study was to investigate the translation of symbolism in William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies (LOTF). The rich cultural connotations behind the employment of symbols in literary works constitute a great challenge to the literary translator. There is a need to ascertain the appropriateness of the translated symbols in the Arabic versions of LOTF. Two Arabic translations, Darweesh and Qaseh (2004) and Hamid (2002), are compared in terms of conveying the original symbolic style of the hunting series in LOTF. This study attempts to provide a relevance-theoretic account for the translation of symbols between English and Arabic. Relevance Theory (RT), as a communication theory which builds on a pragmatics, provides a way out of the traditional emphasis on the concept of the translation equivalence. It concentrates on the contextual environment of both the source language (SL) and the target language (TL) in achieving successful communication.

Highlights

Literary texts usually employ various techniques to achieve their aims rhetorically and aesthetically (Katan, 2015)
Being rife with figurative language, literary works constitute a challenge for translators (Tymoczko, 2016)
In addition to the semantic direct meanings of symbols, literary translators need to consider the implicit pragmatic and extra-lingual meanings and associations, which are usually dependent on cultural contexts, in the source language text (SLT)

Summary

Introduction

Literary texts usually employ various techniques to achieve their aims rhetorically and aesthetically (Katan, 2015). Being rife with figurative language, literary works constitute a challenge for translators (Tymoczko, 2016). This is due to the fact that figurative literary language, by its implicit connotative nature, does not express meanings and ideas in a direct way. Connotative layers of implicit meanings and associations, in addition to denotative direct meanings, are always present in the literary genre (cf Bassnett, 2011; Traps, 2009). In addition to the semantic direct meanings of symbols, literary translators need to consider the implicit pragmatic and extra-lingual meanings and associations, which are usually dependent on cultural contexts, in the source language text (SLT) (cf Zhonggang, 2006). Two Arabic translations, Darweesh and Qaseh (2004) and Hamid (2002), will be investigated in terms of conveying the original symbolic style in LOTF with regard to the series of hunting

Background of the Study

Translating Symbolism in Terms of Relevance Theory

The Hunting Series in LOTF

Conclusion