Culture-bound references through the prism of domestication and foreignization. A case study of the Arabic-English translation of the novel Dhakirat al jassad

Abstract

This study sets out to investigate the concepts of domestication and foreignization introduced by Lawrence Venuti through examining the transfer of culture-bound references in the translation of the novel “Dhakirat al jassad ذاكرة الجسد” (Memory in the Flesh) by the world's best-known Arab woman novelist, Ahlam Mosteghanemi. A translation that was carried out from Arabic into English by the Lebanese journalist and translator Baria Ahmar Sreihn.

The protagonists (khaled and Hayat) both come from the capital of Eastern Algeria: Constantine, which is also the author’s hometown. Algeria, as the biggest country in Africa, is home to numerous cultures, dialects and even languages. Constantine is thus considered an Algerian cultural and civilization beacon that has its own culture, habits and customs which the Arab reader can feel through the extensive use of culture-bound references by Mosteghanemi. In addition to that, the reader can also feel the French influence in Mosteghanemi’s style, an influence that can be explained by the fact that the French colonialism stayed in Algeria for over 132 years.

We selected 14 occurrences of culture-bound references to be analyzed and criticized from the first chapter of the novel. How did the translator deal with a different culture than hers? How did she render all of the Algerian culture-bound references in English? Were they adapted? Omitted? Or kept as they are? According to Lawrence Venuti, the translator should always choose to foreignize rather than domesticate. On another note, Schleirmacher speaks about two major things from which the translator chooses: “He either leaves the writer in peace as much as possible and moves the reader toward him; or he leaves the reader in peace as much as possible and moves the writer toward him.” We therefore put forth the hypothesis that the translator domesticated all of the culture-bound references in order to “move the writer (and her culture) toward the reader”.