Culture-Specific Items in the Chichewa Translation of Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Boniface Dokotala

doi:10.53974/unza.jlss.4.4.768

Boniface Dokotala University of Malawi - Chancellor College

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53974/unza.jlss.4.4.768

Keywords: culture-specific items, domestication, foreignisation, source text, target text, translation strategies, translation techniques

Abstract

The article analyses 'Chipasupasu' a Chichewa translation of Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' to determine the strategies adopted in translating culture-specific items (CSIs) into Chichewa. Specifically, it seeks to address the following questions: what treatment – foreignisation or domestication – is given to individual CSIs in the translation?; which translation strategy is dominant in the translated text? and what is the nature of the meanings that resulted from the translation process, following the use of the dominating strategy? Data comprised extracts from the two novels and these were tabulated and analysed to identify translation strategies used in the translation of each CSI. The analysis was carried out considering Venuti's (1995) domestication and foreignisation model, which states that the former is target-culture oriented and seeks to achieve a natural translation in the target language while the latter is source-culture oriented and ensures that a translated text is literal and faithful to the original text. As the findings show, the translator used foreignisation as his main tool for handling CSIs, in some cases he had no other option, while in other cases he did it deliberately; this tendency made foreignisation a dominant strategy in the translation, as its occurrence is 75 per cent as compared with that of domestication; as a result of this dominance, some of the results are plausible, while others are confusing and fail to communicate. Indeed, the preference of one strategy over the other depends on the translator and the ultimate function of the translation. This article however concludes that this translation would remain source-culture oriented for the translator and easy to understand for the target reader if the choice of foreignisation was accompanied by another tool, such as, the use of explanations in form of footnotes.

References

1. Abdel-Hafiz, A. (2004) ‘Cultural Elements in the Translation of Mahfooz’s The Beginning and the End and Palace of Desire’, in George, E. (ed.) Entlehnung und Übersetzung am Kreuzweg von Sprache und kulturellem Kontakt. Available at: https://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/07_1/abdelhafiz15.htm (Accessed: 20 August 2020).
2. Achebe, C. (1958) Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann.
3. Achebe, C. (2004) Chipasupasu. Trans. B. W. Malunga. Zomba: Chancellor College.
4. Ahmadi, M. and Nosrati, F. (2012) ‘A study on the Domestication and Foreignisation Strategies in the Translation of Culture-Specific Items in Translations of English-Persian Children’s Literature’. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/7570575/Domestication_and_Foreignisation_Strategies_in_Translation_of_Culture_Specific_Items_in_Translations_of_English_Persian_Children_s_Literature (Accessed: 20 August 2020).
5. Akakuru, I. and Chima, D. (2006) ‘Réflexions sur la littérature africaine et sa traduction’, Translation Journal, 10(3), n.p. Available at: https://translationjournal.net/journal/37lit.htm (Accessed: 12 November 2015).
6. Chaal, H. (2019) ‘Literary Translation Difficulties’, Literary Translation from Translation to Creativity. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332511380_Literary_translation_difficulties (Accessed: 20 August 2020).
7. Chilala, C. (2012) An Analysis of Gender Issues in Zambia Literature in English. Lusaka: University of Zambia. Unpublished Thesis.
8. Chilala, C. (2016) ‘Footprints of Caliban: Appropriation of English in Selected African Fictional Texts’, Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 39(2), University of California (UCLA), pp. 59-72.
9. Chilala, C. (2019) ‘Anglophone Zambian Prose Fiction: Tradition or Transition?’, Hybrid Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, 1(1), pp. 13-29.
10. Daraghmeh, S.H.M. (2016) Cultural Consistency in the Literary Translation of the Novel Awlaadu Haaratena. Master’s thesis, An-Najah National University. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11888/6558 (Accessed: 14 May 2019).
11. Diallo, M. (2008) Translation, Culture, Power, Psyche: Camara Laye’s L’Enfant Noir and James Kirkup’s The African Child. Paris: Harmattan.
12. Faiq, S. (2004) The Discourse of Intercultural Translation. Available at: http://web.uri.edu/iaics/files/04-Said-Faiq.pdf (Accessed: 17 March 2019).
13. Gerding-Salas, C. (2000) ‘Teaching Translation: Problems and Solutions’, Translation Journal, 4(3), n.p. Available at: http://accurapid.com/journal/18theory.htm (Accessed: 20 June 2020).
14. Hassan, B.A. (2011) Literary Translation: Aspects of Pragmatic Meaning. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
15. Hirsch Jr, E.D. (1969) Validity in Interpretation. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
16. Ivir, V. (2003) ‘Translation of Culture and Culture of Translation’, SRAZ, 47(48), pp. 117-126. Available at: https://www.scribd.com/document/336681767/10-Ivir (Accessed: 17 March 2019).
17. Jones, F.R. (2009) ‘Literary Translation’, in Baker, M. and Saldanha, G. (eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, pp. 152-156.
18. Kaul, A. (2007) Business Communication. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India.
19. Kenny, D. (2011) ‘Equivalence’, in Baker, M. and Saldanha, G. (eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 96-99.
20. Mekouo, K.I.A. (2016) Retraduction des éléments culturels dans Tout S’effondre de Chinua Achebe. Master’s thesis, ASTI, University of Buea, Cameroon.
21. Munday, J. (2001) Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. London: Routledge.
22. Ngoran, C.T. (2017) Mastering Translation in Four Stages. Buea: Benti Ventures.
23. Oyali, U. (ed.) (2017) Perspectives on Translation Studies in Africa. Bayreuth: Institute of African Studies.
24. Pedersen, J. (2007) ‘How is Culture Rendered in Subtitles?’, in Gerzymisch-Arbogast, H. and Nauert, S. (eds.) Multidimensional Translation: Challenges of Multidimensional Translation. Proceedings of the Marie Curie Euroconference, Saarbrücken, Germany, pp. 1-18.
25. Sharifabad, E.D., Yaqubi, M. and Mahadi, T. (2013) ‘The application of Domestication and Foreignisation Translation Strategies in Persian Translations of News Phrasal Verbs’, Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(1), pp. 94-99. Available at: doi:10.4304/tpls.3.1.94-99.
26. Soori, H. (2015) ‘Methods of Translating Different Cultural Categories and Elements in Nahj ul Balagheh’, Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(9), pp. 1822-1827. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0509.08 (Accessed: 12 November 2018).
27. Woolcott, L.A. and Unwin, W\.R. (1983) Mastering Business Communication. New York: Palgrave.
28. Zare-Behtash, E. and Firoozkoohi, S. (2010) ‘Culture-specific Items in Literary Translation’, Translation Journal, 14(1). Available at: https://translationjournal.net/journal/51culture.htm (Accessed: 20 August 2020).
29. Zimmermann, K.A. (2017) ‘What is Culture?’, Live Science. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.html (Accessed: 20 August 2020).