Translating Nouzha Fassi Fihri's La Baroudeuse: A Case Study in ...

Chapter Three: Comparison of the Initial and Final Versions of
the Translation
The following quantitative and qualitative comparison of the first and last
versions of the translation reveals similarities and differences that reflect various
influences on the translator's decisions. The results of this comparison suggest
that critical and theoretical paradigms expand the translator's range of choices
during translation and make evident the principles and criteria on which
translation decisions are made. The following discussion analyzes quantitative
and qualitative variation between the first and final versions of "The Fighter"
using André Lefevere's paradigm of ideological, poetological and sociocultural as
well as linguistic constraints as an analytical framework (Lefevere Translating
Literature). Lefevere defines ideological constraints as "standards for acceptable
behavior" and notes that the translator needs to consider how the original can be
"made to fit in with the dominant ideology or with a sufficiently strong peripheral
ideological current of the target audience at the time the translation is made" (87,
92). He uses the term "poetics” in reference to literary characteristics and
techniques of a genre, and states that the translator must create a text that can "be
easily assimilated into an existing text type in the target culture" (110). The term
"sociocultural constraints" refers to elements of the author's "universe of
discourse" that do not translate unproblematically for readers of another culture
and require the translator to carefully consider word choice, for example. These
levels of constraint often overlap and interact.
73