Transferring culture-bound terminology in literary texts: a comparative approach

Abstract

Through this paper, Transferring Culture-Bound Terminology in Literary Texts: A Comparative Approach, a comparison and contrast of cultural references appearing in two English literary texts and its translations into Spanish is proposed. Cultural references contain important information within the text; in fact, writers use them to create a specific atmosphere or feeling. Different studies about comparative literature argue that comparison is the best way to manage with cultural references. On the other hand, many works on translation studies suggest several strategies to deal with these words or expressions. These areas of study help translators to go from a linguistic level to an interlingual level. It is well known that translation plays an important role in communication between cultures. However, it can be observed a loss in translated texts, which is produced during the translation process, and affects mostly the cultural aspect. When facing cultural references in literary texts, the translator must observe and classify them, and then he or she has to apply the most appropriate translation strategies in order to achieve a culturally equivalent translation, and avoid such loss. Apart from an analysis about cultural references and how a translator should deal with them, this article proposes some practical applications. For example, cultural references could be applied within the field of education. Literature professors, for example, should point them out when reading a piece of work since students usually miss them.