A Study of Self - Translated Intertexts in the Dusk Visitor by Musa Al-Halool

Abstract

Self-translation is drawing increasing critical attention in literary and translation studies. This thesis represents a case study that examines this literary practice and its aspects. Further, it is concerned with the challenges of translating three categories of intertextual references from the perspective of self-translation in a particular literary work, namely, The Dusk Visitor by Musa Al- Halool. The study argues that self-translators will be more successful in translating intertextually- rich texts because of their thorough knowledge of the original text and its embedded references. Further, it argues that self-translation enables the author-translator to cater to the needs of the target text (TT) and its readers. The main aims of it are to provide first-hand information about self- translation by some of the Arab authors as well as examine the transparency of the translations of the ST’s intertextual references. This thesis will examine the extent to which the ST’s intertextual references were successfully translated. Additionally, it aims at suggesting strategies that can be applied to compensate in the case of translation loss. The theoretical framework of this study adopts the cultural approach to translation studies as the research approach and implements the formal translation vs. the functional translation for analysis of the possible translation approaches and strategies that were used by the author-translator. The current study follows a qualitative approach for the analysis and uses interviews as a tool to collect data about self-translation. The qualitive analysis of the identified intertextual references has two parts, describing and comparing the translations of the TT’s references with the ST’s. The qualitative analysis of the intertextual references is supported with statistical data analysis to provide a visual presentation of the numbers of the intertextual references in the source and target text as well as provide an illustration of the translation approach that was used the most. The findings of this study disprove its second hypothesis by demonstrating that the author-translator did not capture all or most of the ST’s intertextual references. However, it proves that self-translation enables the translator to cater to the needs of the TT and its readers. Finally, it suggests strategies such as paratextual devices or lexical expansion that might help in capturing the ST’s intertextual references as well as achieve the appropriate formal or functional meanin