Ideology in Translating Religion Related Discourse

Abstract

In this thesis, the importance of equivalence in the translation of religious discourse is discussed and the role of ideology in translation is analyzed. It is assumed that equivalence, defined as the relation that holds between a Source Language text and a Target Language text, represents the constitutive notion in the process of translation. This thesis, while asserting this essentiality of equivalence, aims at assessing the role ideology, defined as a systematic body of ideas organized from a particular point of view, plays in the translation of texts about religion where words become loaded symbols of specific meanings. To this end, a chapter from Bernard Lewis’s book The Crisis of Islam is translated into Arabic and analyzed. The thesis concludes that in the translation of such texts, the mere establishment of equivalence between the Source Text and the Target Text as the only factor needed in the translation process may render neither the connotative meaning nor the effect of the Source Text, and so the all-fold concept of ideology should be approached.