Translation and Commentary Dissertation: That’s My Son: How Moms Can Influence Boys to Become Men of Character, by Rick Johnson.

Abstract

This dissertation is a translation and commentary of selected chapters from That’s My Son: How Moms Can Influence Boys to Become Men of Character, a self-help book by Rick Johnson (2005). The main focus of this research is the examination of the translation of culture-related issues in self-help texts, as such material is inherently loaded with ideology- and culture-specific elements. The primary research question is: What culture-related issues might translators encounter during the translation of the self-help genre? As such, this project aims to identify suitable strategies for translating these issues to recreate the intended contextual effects required to ensure accurate translations of the self-help genre. To achieve this aim, my translation draws on Newmark’s (1981) communicative translation approach and Gutt’s (1991) relevance theory approach. The culture-related challenges that arose during the translation of the source text were controversial ideological items, taboo words, allusions, and cultural references. The project concludes that the function of the source text and the self-help genre in general, which aims to offer advice and easily applicable solutions to seekers of help, is a significant element in deciding translation strategies. Applying a cognitive-pragmatic theoretical framework to the translation of cultural/ideological items in the self-help text offered a foundation for identifying solutions to such translation challenges. The principles of relevance theory emphasize the fundamental aspects of the translation of culture-related issues. Adhering to these principles in translation helps achieve the intended contextual effects of communication in the source text’s translation and hence attain the text’s intended communicative goal.