Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

This dissertation examines how perlocutionary equivalence can be obtained in drama translation from English into Arabic in William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1602) and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1955). In addition, reception in drama translation is tackled from a linguistic perspective; particularly in the light of the Speech Act Theory. This theory principally views reception as a web linking the text (locution), the addresser's intentions (illocutions), and the effects triggered in the receptors and their responses (perlocution). In this sense, reception in drama translation depends on the deliberate manipulation of the source language (SL) and/or the source culture (SC) specific potentialities. Accordingly, this dissertation focuses on how the original perlocutionary effects and the receptors' responses to locutions and illocutions can be transferred to a different audience whose language and culture may neither hold similar characteristics nor allow similar manipulations. Moreover, this dissertation is concerned with the translation dynamics, that would assist a target text (TT) audience to receive it in a way that is almost similar to the original text by its original receptors. In addition, this dissertation seeks to explore Eugene Nida{u2019}s Theory of Dynamic Equivalence (1964/ 1969/ 1986), which is regarded as a reception theory. This is attributed to the fact that Nida{u2019}s Theory vitally concentrates on the receptor and their responses. Nida adopts a semiotic-oriented approach to translation in which he thoroughly rejects the idea of absolute equivalence. Finally, this dissertation has proved the validity and success of Nida's Theory of Dynamic Equivalence in attaining perlocutionary equivalence in the process of translating dramatic texts from English into Arabic

Issued also as CD