Translating Narrative Voice in The Book Thief Into Arabic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1606.02Keywords:
narrative voice, The Book Thief, tone, Chesterman’s translation strategies, power of wordsAbstract
Narrative voice is a central element of prose fiction, as it shapes the story structure, conveys values, and establishes the narrative stance. This study investigates the translation of the narrative voice in Markus Zusak’s (2005) The Book Thief, in which Death serves as narrator. Voice is studied through Phelan’s (2023) triad of style, tone, and values, with Leech and Short’s (2013) stylistic categories used to trace voice across source and target languages. Chesterman’s (1997) strategies are employed to explain and classify shifts identified in translation. It is hypothesized that although Arabic translation accurately conveys narrative events, it recurrently introduces modifications to narrative voice through explicitness and trope change. The study draws on five selected samples taken from The Book Thief, through which narrative voice is identified using foregrounding and deviation. The study reveals shifts in Death’s voice that stem from overlooking narrative voice. These shifts align with Arabic norms of clarity and descriptive detail, yet at the expense of weakening narrative voice. Cross-cultural variations further shape how voice is perceived across the two languages. The study concludes with an examination of the impact of translation strategies on style, tone, and values. A lack of thematic awareness leads to a loss of coherence in the representation of the narrator’s moral and emotional stance. It also concludes that translating complex narratives requires a unified sensitivity to the narrator’s style, tone, and values, along with awareness of the novel’s central theme and of cultural differences between Arabic and English.
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