The politics of translation : investigating ideology in translating Belfour 1917

Abstract EN

This study attempts to investigate the distinctive ways Balfour 1917 is referred to in Arabic and English.

The source of data is a compiled comparable bilingual corpus of Arabic and English book titles referring to Balfour 1917.

The titles were analysed and classified into categories carrying the reference to the historical event in question.

Further quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to find out the significance of Balfour terminology.

The results show that most of the book titles written in Arabic refer to the event as a ‘promise’ whereas those written in English refer to it as a ‘declaration’.

A Speech Act analysis helped clarify the different linguistic and historical connotations attached to both ‘promise’ and ‘declaration’.

By using the term ‘promise’ the Arabs uncover a covert British commitment to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.

The study is a manifestation that translation is not a mere “technical act of copying from one language to another” (Evri, 2016, pp.

30-31); it, in fact, implies change and transformation for various linguistic, social and ideological motivations (see Venuti, 1995).