THE ROLE OF READERSHIP IN TRANSLATING PROFANITIES IN YOUNG ADULT NOVELS: TINH THUY’S TRANSLATION OF NEW MOON AND ECLIPSE

Abstract

Translating profanities in Young Adult novels for their targeted readership can be a great challenge for any translators. However, so far, there have only been a limited number of studies focused on this problem. Studying Tinh Thuy’s translation of New Moon and Eclipse, this paper investigated the strategies that the translator employed to render profanities in those novels and investigate her opinions on readership as well as on profanities to conclude whether there is a connection between the translator’s awareness of the targeted readership and her way of translating profanities. In addition, the researcher sought to find out how some readers can respond to profanities translated by different strategies. To achieve this goal, document analysis and interviews were adopted as the main instruments. After analyzing collected data, the final findings indicate that literal softening, compensation, cultural equivalence and omission were mainly used as the strategies to render profanities in New Moon and Eclipse. Even though the translator’s goal while translating is to be faithful to the original version, these decisions of the translator were still partly affected by her awareness of readership. About the response of readers to the translation, most of them were positive. They might not expect translators to transfer all those profanities, but they showed great appreciation to the translation that is in YAs’ language. Recommendations for further studies are provided in the last chapter.