Culture-Bound Elements in Thai Literary Translation: A Case Study of Marcel Barang’s Thai-English Translation Strategies
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was twofold: a) to create and propose a typology of culture-bound elements in two Thai literary texts that were translated into English by the non-Thai literary translator, Marcel Barang; and b) to deeply explore and propose a taxonomy of translation strategies that the translator adopted when dealing with culture-bound elements. The findings revealed eleven types of culture-bound elements, including: 1) Buddhism, comprising nine subcategories; 2) proper names, consisting of eight subcategories; 3) cultural artifacts; 4) figurative language, consisting of four subcategories; 5) onomatopoeic words; 6) sex, containing three subcategories; 7) swearwords; 8) music and arts; 9) greeting expressions; 10) units of measurement; and 11) others. Four types of culture-bound elements emerged from this study: figurative language, onomatopoeic words, sex, and swearwords. Regarding translation strategies, it was found that the translator adopted eleven strategies: 1) description, 2) transposition, 3) combined strategies, 4) superordinate, 5) literal translation, 6) definition, 7) transliteration, 8) reduction, 9) subordinate, 10) omission, and 11) alteration. The analysis of translation strategies demonstrated that foreignizing strategies were dominantly adopted in the transference of the culture-bound elements in the selected literary texts while domesticating strategies were used infrequently. It could be summarized that the translator tended to adopt a target-text-oriented style as shown in a series of efforts to facilitate the target audiences by not allowing the foreignness or strangeness of the source culture to affect their enjoyment.
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