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Abstract

The cultural turn in translation studies heralded greater focus on the impact of context on the translation process, and the role of translators as mediators of meaning between cultures. This paradigm shift was especially pertinent for semantic concepts that are highly coded by cultural factors, such as love. The current study explored the role of culture in the translation of love expressions from Arabic to English in poetry. A qualitative methodology was used to analyse a sample of 50 pairs of love expressions from source and target texts. The findings suggested that a wide range of cultural factors influence the translation of love expressions, particularly in terms of lexical richness and equivalence, between Arabic and English. The study did not observe anticipated shifts in sexual reference during the translation of love expressions. Emergent findings indicated that both cross-cultural gender stereotypes and culturally-specific typologies of love also had an impact on the translation of love expressions from Arabic to English. The study concluded that cultural context should be considered on a case-by-case basis during the translation of love expressions, to avoid misrepresentation of both the texts themselves and their underlying cultures. The implications of the study for translator practice were discussed, including the development of cultural expertise, and recommendations were made for future research into the influence of specific cultural variables on the translation of love expressions.

Course: Translation Studies - MA/PGD - C0680

Date Deposited: 2024-02-06

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14364.html