Rendering Naguib Mahfouz's Novel Titres into English: A Functionalist Orientation

Abstract

This paper endeavours to investigate the creative translation of the Arab Egyptian writer, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, Naguib Mahfouz. The research introduces twelve novels of the Noble Prize Laureate, because of their linguistic validity to be analyzed at the cultural references level. The study in question discusses these novel titres, to determine the translators' decision-making process in handling the translation as literary and as creative as the original ones did on the functional perspective. This paper attempts to answer three questions: How can the functionalist orientation be applied to the translation of the fiction titres? How do translators optimize the use of the functional approach in rendering such creative texts? What makes the translatum (product) win the appeal of the target audience? The methodology adopted in the study is mixed methods, i.e., qualitative and quantitative ones. Moreover, the study finds out that the functionalist approach accepts any strategy, even if it is a literal translation or any direct approach, as long as it fulfills the same skopos (purpose/function), in case it appears natural, acceptable, and satisfactory to the target audience and bridges the gaps of linguistic and cultural specificities.