AUDIO-VISUAL TRANSLATION BETWEEN DOMESTICATION AND FOREIGNISATION: A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH INTO ARABIC NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ABU DHABI DOCUMENTARIES

Abstract

For centuries, translation has been a means of cross-cultural communication and has played a significant role in facilitating interaction between people who speak different languages and belong to other cultures. This difference in culture often poses problems for translators. Therefore, researchers have been developing strategies such as domestication and foreignisation to overcome cultural obstacles to translation. This study explored the use of these strategies in the audio-visual translation of documentaries from the National Geographic channel translated into Arabic. It also sought to reveal to what extent these strategies were used and which strategy was applied more, using a descriptive qualitative approach. Data were collected from various documentaries and analysed manually. Findings concluded that translators in National Geographic Abu Dhabi tended to mingle domestication and foreignisation strategies and shift from one to another on purpose. The choice of the appropriate strategy depended on whether the translator defended his cultural and social identity against all that was foreign and strange through domestication or whether he accepted the other and welcomed his foreignness. This study is limited in terms of samples and thus recommends expanding the number of documentaries selected for analysis in future works.

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