Ideological mediation in the translation of geopolitical texts: an English-Kurdish case-study

This thesis offers a critical analysis of the implications of ideological mediations in the translation of English-Kurdish geopolitical texts. It makes an original contribution by enabling a deeper comprehension of the role of re-contextualisation of socio-political texts in situations of constant contemporary conflict in the Middle East. It does so by exploring the reproduction of stance and voice in the translations of a geopolitical commentarial genre commissioned by newspapers. The study provides an account of how patterns of translation choices are conveyed in newspaper commentary articles on the geopolitical issues originally published in English and then how these patterns are re-conveyed in full translations of these articles for four quality Kurdish-language newspapers with different editorial policies: Sbeiy, Kurdistan-i-New, Xendan, and Rudaw. The case study explores the Kurdish translation of English journalistic articles covering general political developments in Middle East and Kurdistan in particular over a significant four-year period of 2011-2014. It is employed as an example of the rewriting activity that has been effective in achieving significant geopolitical results in favour of the media agencies that are considered politically aligned outlets. The study questions the extent to which ideologies involved in leading translation practice and inquires what the Kurdish case-study apprises us about wider practice. The methodology is a hybrid of corpus- and critical narrative-analytical methods that operate within the discipline of descriptive translation studies. The study deployed tripartite models to analyse and depict the interplay between ideology and a translator’s behaviour within media contexts. It adapts Toury’s three-phase descriptive methodology and Chesterman’s concept of norms as complementary models in order to describe the type of norms operating within the context of Kurdish media translation. It also developed critical narrative analysis for further investigating and for describing the normative effects of socio- political factors on the behaviour of the translator within the same realm. The outcomes of the data analysis have revealed that media translation choices are driven by ideology. The socio-political ideology plays a significant role, both historically and currently in the occurrence of stylistic shifts. On the level of meaning, however, the majority of shifts occur due to the current political power dynamics in Kurdistan. The results have also shown that media translation in Iraqi Kurdistan is not neutral and it is largely affected by the policy of the parties to which the media news agencies are aligned. This study encompasses six chapters, a conclusion and appendices