Tarhuni, Mehemed Miloud Omran; (2024) Narrative Point of View in Translation and Retranslation: A Corpus-Driven Investigation of The Translator’s Discursive Presence in Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley as Reflected in the System of Modality. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Employing a corpus-driven approach within the framework of descriptive translation studies, this thesis investigates the translator's discursive presence across two English translations of Naguib Mahfouz's acclaimed Arabic novel Midaq Alley. Combining the topics of retranslation and translator’s discursive presence, the study is driven by the rationale that analysing discursive presence through a corpus-driven lens can provide empirical insights into retranslation phenomena, and vice versa. The corpus-driven methodology compares the two English translations against each other and a general reference corpus to generate distinctive keywords. Examples of the use of these keywords are then systematically compared with their Arabic source equivalents to identify shifts in narrative point of view, based on Simpson's (1993) model of modal grammar for point of view analysis. The focus is on elucidating the translation of narrative perspective as reflected in modality systems and discourse representation techniques, examining transitions across translations. In addition, the study investigates a sub-hypothesis of the retranslation hypothesis - that the translator’s discursive presence increases in retranslations compared to initial translations. Analysis of shifts in narrative perspective and modality provides empirical insights into evolving translator mediation. Moreover, the thesis analyses the socio-cultural and historical conditions motivating the translation and retranslation, including researching the biographies of the two translators and their paratexts and publishers to understand the context of the time. Ultimately, the integration of corpus-driven analysis with Simpson's framework and comprehensive contextual research enables a multilayered investigation of the translator’s discursive presence through the textual feature of narrative point of view. The study provides a model for enriched empirical descriptive translation research.

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