A Comparative Study of the Translation of Cultural References in Subtitling and Dubbing: The 1990s Disney Classics in Arabic

Abstract

The thesis is concerned with comparing the trends of translating cultural references in subtitling and dubbing, being the main two types of Audiovisual Translation (AVT). It does not only study the translation of cultural references from a linguistic perspective, but also explores the cultural implications of the translation of cultural references in the context of globalization and cultural hybridization. The aim is to identify how globalization has impacted the traditional forces that shape and influence the translation process. The thesis is divided into an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion. The Introduction sets out the context of the study, the research questions, the research significance, the central problems, the objectives, and the applied methodology. Chapter One sets the theoretical framework. It examines Descriptive Translation Studies and the Cultural Turn in Translation Studies. It focuses on the Manipulation School which was introduced by Hermans in 1985 and explores in detail Lefevere's (1992) Rewriting theory which provides the framework of this study. Lefevere (1992) introduces the concepts of patronage and poetics as two control factors in the translation process. While patronage is concerned with the ideological, economic, and social impact of local patrons on translation, poetics is concerned with the aesthetic norms set by the agents who are active in the target literary system. Manipulation and