This article offers a descriptive translation assessment of Hilary Kilpatrick’s rendition of Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun, a Palestinian literary narrative that marks the rise of what Kanafani classifies as political literature of resistance in 1963. The article scrutinizes the translation of selected concepts imbued with sociopolitical and cultural significance, which together form an intricate network of conflicting signs that contribute to the thematic coherence of the novella. To achieve its objectives, the study synthesizes a methodological framework that draws on House (1977; 1997) and Baker’s (2011) models and concepts of translation assessment. The analysis identifies FILED, TENOR, and MODE mismatches between the source text and the target text, which are examined with reference to their ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions respectively. By interpreting these functions in the milieu of the Palestinian Nakba, it is possible to identify how translational choices can shift the subject matter of the text, its sociopolitical critique, and narrativity. The study concludes that Kilpatrick’s translation underscores a number of mismatches that impact the complexity of sociopolitical and cultural signs inherent in Kanafani’s literary narrative, employing a set of translation strategies that produce a universally accepted text. This approach reveals conflicts and complexities of the relationship between key symbols in Men in the Sun, which are essential for constructing a sociopolitical and cultural coherent body of knowledge that is reduced in the translation in favor of a universal narrative of broader human values.

Title

Interventions

Publisher

RIIJ-production

Publisher Country

United Kingdom

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

1.5

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

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Year

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Pages

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