Linguistic Mediation and Ideological Reframing in the Arabic Translation of The Quiet Before: A Critical Study of Translational Management

Abstract

This thesis explores how linguistic intricacies and ideological interventions manifested in the Arabic translation of The Quiet Before (TQB), employing Farghal’s (1993) dichotomy of intrinsic and extrinsic managing while identifying the strategies employed to realize these translational shifts. The study demonstrates that at the intrinsic managing levels (phonological, lexical, morphological, phraseological, syntactic, pragmatic, and cultural), linguistic norms necessitate translator’s intervention between the source text (ST) and the target text (TT) to resolve linguistic asymmetries through strategies such as foreignization, domestication, naturalization, and approximation. At the extrinsic levels (lexical, syntactic, and discoursal), the translator’s ideological positioning motivates the ST’s ideological orientation through epistemic modality, mitigation, evaluative framing, and tone shifting. Furthermore, the Arabic translation of TQB reveals instances of managing beyond Farghal’s dichotomy. Accordingly, the study proposes a third category of managing, namely aesthetic managing, which concerns literary shifts between the ST and the TT and can be realize through strategies such as metaphor substitution, imagery expansion, and rhetorical recalibration. This category is primarily classified by the stylistic choices of the translator. However, it is worth noting that what is classified as ideological and stylistic managing may, in some instances, also function as linguistic examples, since both categories are often realized through processes of linguistic restructuring.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Humanities and Social Science