The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s <i>Sugar Street</i>: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy

Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz

doi:doi:10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11

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The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy

Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz

Published in Arabic Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 4)

Received: 18 July 2020 Accepted: 4 August 2020 Published: 31 December 2020

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Abstract

Different translators employ different strategies in translation. The translation of culture-specific elements is particularly challenging to translators. Some translators prefer a domesticating strategy, which is characterized by the replacement of foreign cultural elements with TL ones. Other translators opt for a foreignizing strategy, which enables the translator to preserve the values of SL culture. It is true that globalization has turned our universe into a small village where people have become more and more familiar with the cultures of other people. Thus peoples of different countries may share most of the cultural elements: food, clothing, sports, entertainment etc. Only religion remains resistant to change. Religion is one of the three axes that Mahfouz’s novels revolve around. This study aims at identifying the strategies the translators of Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street have employed in rendering religious words and religious expressions. This requires examining both the source text and the target text. Having identified the religious words and expressions in the novel, I traced them in the translated text. It turned out that the translators have used three major types of strategies: foreignizing strategy, domesticating strategy, and a mixture of these two. However, the investigation of these strategies has shown that the foreignizing strategy is the most frequent in the translation of this novel.

Published in	Arabic Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 4)
DOI	10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11
Page(s)	44-50
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Mahfouz, Domestication, Foreignization, Cultural Items, Religious Expressions

References

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[2]	Al-Debyan, Q. (2008). Strategies for translating Arabic cultural markers into English: A foreignizing approach. Ph.D dissertation, University of Arkansas.
[3]	Baawaidhan, A. (2016). Applying foreignization and domestication in translating Arabic Dialectical Expressions into English, International Journal of Linguistics 8 (4), 197-217.
[4]	Baker, M. (1992). In other words: A course book on translation. London and New York: Routledge.
[5]	Crystal, D. (1991). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. UK: Blackwell.
[6]	El-Enany, R. (1988). Religion in the novels of Naguib Mahfouz, Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies 15 (1/2), pp. 21-27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/195213
[7]	Gambier, Y. (2007) Doubts and directions in translation studies, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
[8]	Hutchins, W., & Saman, A. (1992). Sugar Street. London: Doubleday.
[9]	Khammyseh, D. (2015). The Problems in translating Islamic expressions in religious occasions, Journal of Education and Practice 6 (35), 103-109.
[10]	Mahfouz, N. (1957). Al-Sukkariyya. Cairo: Daar El-Shrouq.
[11]	Mehawesh, M. I. & Sadeq, A. (2014). Islamic Religious expressions in the translation of Naguib Mahfouz Novel “The Beginning and the End, Research on Humanities and Social Sciences 4 (12), 7-18.
[12]	Munday, J. (2001). Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications. London and New York: Routledge.
[13]	Obeidat, A. M. & Mahadi, T. S. (2019). Collocation translation errors from Arabic to English: A case study of Naguib Mahfouz’s novel “Awlad Haratina”, International Journal of Humanities, Philosophy, and Language 21 (7), 129-138.
[14]	Al Rabadi, R. (2012) A moment of truth in translating proper names in Naguib Mahfouz’ Trilogy from Arabic into English, Cross-Cultural Communication 8 (6), 43-47.
[15]	Schäffner, C. & Wiesemann, U. (2001). Annotated texts for translation: English-German. Functionalist approaches illustrated. Frankfurt: Multilingual Matters. translation Shehab, E. (2005). The translatability of terms of address in Najib Mahfouz’s Ziqaq Al-Midaq into English, Al-Najah Journal Research 19 (1), 309-321.
[16]	Shehab, E. (2005). The Translatability of Terms of Addressin Najib ‎Mahfouz’s Ziqaq Al-Midaqinto English. An-Najah Univ. J. 19 (1), 315-322.
[17]	Siregar, R. (2016). Translation procedures analysis: English - Indonesian motivational book, Journal Of Humanities And Social Science 21 (5), 51-57.
[18]	Vanuti, L. (1995). The Translator’s invisibility: A history of translation. London and New York: Routledge.
[19]	Vanuti, L. (1997). The American tradition, in Baker, M (Ed.), The Routledge encyclopedia of translation, (pp. 305-315), London and New York: Routledge.

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Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz. (2020). The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy. Arabic Language, Literature & Culture, 5(4), 44-50. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11

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Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz. The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy. Arab. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(4), 44-50. doi: 10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11

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Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz. The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy. Arab Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(4):44-50. doi: 10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11

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@article{10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11,
  author = {Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz},
  title = {The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy},
  journal = {Arabic Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {5},
  number = {4},
  pages = {44-50},
  doi = {10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.allc.20200504.11},
  abstract = {Different translators employ different strategies in translation. The translation of culture-specific elements is particularly challenging to translators. Some translators prefer a domesticating strategy, which is characterized by the replacement of foreign cultural elements with TL ones. Other translators opt for a foreignizing strategy, which enables the translator to preserve the values of SL culture. It is true that globalization has turned our universe into a small village where people have become more and more familiar with the cultures of other people. Thus peoples of different countries may share most of the cultural elements: food, clothing, sports, entertainment etc. Only religion remains resistant to change. Religion is one of the three axes that Mahfouz’s novels revolve around. This study aims at identifying the strategies the translators of Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street have employed in rendering religious words and religious expressions. This requires examining both the source text and the target text. Having identified the religious words and expressions in the novel, I traced them in the translated text. It turned out that the translators have used three major types of strategies: foreignizing strategy, domesticating strategy, and a mixture of these two. However, the investigation of these strategies has shown that the foreignizing strategy is the most frequent in the translation of this novel.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy
AU - Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz
Y1 - 2020/12/31
PY - 2020
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11
DO - 10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11
T2 - Arabic Language, Literature & Culture
JF - Arabic Language, Literature & Culture
JO - Arabic Language, Literature & Culture
SP - 44
EP - 50
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2639-9695
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11
AB - Different translators employ different strategies in translation. The translation of culture-specific elements is particularly challenging to translators. Some translators prefer a domesticating strategy, which is characterized by the replacement of foreign cultural elements with TL ones. Other translators opt for a foreignizing strategy, which enables the translator to preserve the values of SL culture. It is true that globalization has turned our universe into a small village where people have become more and more familiar with the cultures of other people. Thus peoples of different countries may share most of the cultural elements: food, clothing, sports, entertainment etc. Only religion remains resistant to change. Religion is one of the three axes that Mahfouz’s novels revolve around. This study aims at identifying the strategies the translators of Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street have employed in rendering religious words and religious expressions. This requires examining both the source text and the target text. Having identified the religious words and expressions in the novel, I traced them in the translated text. It turned out that the translators have used three major types of strategies: foreignizing strategy, domesticating strategy, and a mixture of these two. However, the investigation of these strategies has shown that the foreignizing strategy is the most frequent in the translation of this novel.
VL - 5
IS - 4
ER -

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Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz

Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt

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APA Style

Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz. (2020). The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy. Arabic Language, Literature & Culture, 5(4), 44-50. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11

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ACS Style

Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz. The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy. Arab. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(4), 44-50. doi: 10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11

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AMA Style

Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz. The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy. Arab Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(4):44-50. doi: 10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11

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@article{10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11,
  author = {Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz},
  title = {The Translation of Religious Words and Expressions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street: Domesticating or Foreignizing Strategy},
  journal = {Arabic Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {5},
  number = {4},
  pages = {44-50},
  doi = {10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.allc.20200504.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.allc.20200504.11},
  abstract = {Different translators employ different strategies in translation. The translation of culture-specific elements is particularly challenging to translators. Some translators prefer a domesticating strategy, which is characterized by the replacement of foreign cultural elements with TL ones. Other translators opt for a foreignizing strategy, which enables the translator to preserve the values of SL culture. It is true that globalization has turned our universe into a small village where people have become more and more familiar with the cultures of other people. Thus peoples of different countries may share most of the cultural elements: food, clothing, sports, entertainment etc. Only religion remains resistant to change. Religion is one of the three axes that Mahfouz’s novels revolve around. This study aims at identifying the strategies the translators of Naguib Mahfouz’s Sugar Street have employed in rendering religious words and religious expressions. This requires examining both the source text and the target text. Having identified the religious words and expressions in the novel, I traced them in the translated text. It turned out that the translators have used three major types of strategies: foreignizing strategy, domesticating strategy, and a mixture of these two. However, the investigation of these strategies has shown that the foreignizing strategy is the most frequent in the translation of this novel.},
 year = {2020}
}

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