The Techniques of Metaphor Translation in Al-Ahmar's and Cohen's Translations of Ahlaam Mostaghaanemiyy's Dhaakirat Al-Gassad (Memory in the Flesh)

Abstract

A contrastive analysis of the translation of metaphor in Al-Ahmar’s and Cohen’s translations of Mostaghanemi’s novel Dhaakirat Al-Gassad (Memory in the Flesh) is attempted in this dissertation. The adopted theoretical framework is two-dimensional. The first dimension is related to the theory of metaphor adopting Semino’s (2008) model, which deals with eight textual phenomena that metaphor displays in a text. The second dimension is related to the translation studies approaches to metaphor following Toury’s (2012) model which deals with the strategies of metaphor translation. The dissertation presents a literature review of the traditional and modern approaches to the theory of metaphor and metaphor translation. Four recurring themes with their related sets of metaphors are identified in the novel, namely the themes of painting, memory, homeland and bridges. The research questions are: 1) How does the metaphorical profile of Mostaghanemi’s Dhaakirat al-Gasad display the textual phenomena discussed by Semino (2008)? 2) To what extent have both translations heeded such textual phenomena? 3) How are the two translations of Dhaakirat al-Gasad compatible with Toury's (2012) metaphor translation strategies? 4) Which of the two translations is more faithful to the source text? The dissertation has revealed that the novel’s metaphors eminently display Semino’s (2008) textual phenomena, forming networks throughout the text. Toury’s (2012) translation strategies have proved to be sufficiently descriptive of different approaches to translating metaphors. A statistic of the two translations’ employment of Toury’s translation strategies has demonstrated that Cohen’s translation has been more faithful to preserving the original ST metaphors. To avoid the problem of inconsistency in preserving the textual phenomena that metaphor displays, especially Repetition, the translator should pinpoint the literary work’s dominant themes and use CAT tools and concordance programs.