Socio-cultural Representation in Literary Translation A critical discourse analysis

Abstract

This article examines the socio-cultural Arab traits in Naguib Mahfouz’s Zuqāq al-Midaq and their representation in English (Midaq Alley) translated by Trevor Le Gassick (1975) and German (Die Midaq-Gasse) translated by Doris Kilias (1985), and the impact on the representation of Arab culture. It investigates the translators’ roles in the appearance and promotion and of this controversial novel. It also sheds light on the way the translators adopted in using this work to transfer various views on different aspects and, hence, reflecting different representations of cultural aspects from that of the source-text ones. Providing some examples along with their translations of these translational shifts and the possible justifications behind them, the analysis proves that a close reading of these renditions cannot disregard the visibility of both translators.