Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

An Analytical Study of Domestication in V.G Kiernan’s Translation of Muhammad Iqbal’s Poetry into English The researcher has explored the elements of domestication in Kiernan's translation of Iqbal. The study has established the presence of highly structured and complex domestication in Kiernan's translation. Domestication is a translation strategy which seeks to obliterate the linguistic and cultural identity of the source text and re-writes it in line with the norms and canons of the target text. The researcher has also examined the nature and effects of this domestication on the translation. Through a thematic and extended discussion it has been established that there are multiple categories of domestication present in the data such as Anglicization, classificational dislocation, explicitation, omission,ennoblement,qualitativeimpoverishment,distortion,mistranslation,andprosodic domestication. Moreover, in order to give a wider and deeper reliability to the findings, the researcher has also carried out a comprehensive corpus analysis of the data. For this purpose he has designed an elaborate corpus of eighty five highly domesticated words/phrases. Each of these words/phrases has been subjected to an extensive analysis and the insights emerging thereby have been correlated to the issue of domestication. The study has also demonstrated how this domestication has considerably deprived Iqbal of his 'voice' and has affected the linguistic and cultural features of the source text. For the methodology, the researcher has employed the textual analysis which is primarily situated in the domain of qualitative research. Through this analysis, the researcher has critically interpreted and evaluated the data instead of merely describing it. All the conclusions/findings have been consistently correlated with the textual evidence from the data. All these findings and insights have enabled the researcher to problematize Kiernan's translation and relate it to a larger body of investigation in the discipline of translation studies. As regards the theoretical framework the researcher has used Lawrence Venuti's model of foreignization and domestication which contends that, rather than being a liability, it is one of the greatest assets of a translation to appear unfamiliar and foreign since that is the only way to register and negotiate the linguistic and cultural features of the source text. Besides, as per this model, the researcher has conceptualized translation in a broader perspective as a site of ideological conflict for powerandsupremacywhichisconstantlyanimatedbymultiplelinguisticandliterary factors/variables.

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