An-Najah National University 

Faculty of Graduate Studies 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

When Loyalties are Tested: 

The Myth of a Faithful Translator 

 

 

 

 

 

By 

Rowan Bani Nemrah 

 

Supervisor 

Dr. Sufyan Abuarrah 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

This Thesis is Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for 

the Degree of Master of Applied Linguistics and Translation, Faculty 

of Graduate Studies, An-Najah National University, Nablus - Palestine. 

2020 



ii 
 

 



iii 
 

Dedication 

To the very few with whom I no longer crave the need for the many,  

To my Father, there can be no human being in whom I would put my trust 

as I put in you. I dedicate this work to your endless smiles, unremitting 

love, infinite support. My success is because of you and Mom. You will 

always be my backbone. I love you. 

To my Mother, there can be no human being in whom I would find a safe 

haven as I find in you. I dedicate this work to your warm embraces, 

unconditional love, non-withered care and constant spoils. I will always be 

your little girl; and your favorite. I love you. 

To my Brothers, Osama and Islam, there can be no human beings whom I 

would find both loveable and irritating as I find you. I dedicate this work to 

our constant banter and jokes in a loving memory of our childhood together 

(which, I would admit, was not that bright); Oh, and I will always be our 

parents‘ favorite. I love you; I think. 

To my Fiancé, Baraa, there can be no human being with whom I thought I 

would entrust my future as I have entrusted my future with you. But, as 

Monica once told Chandler in Friends: ―I found everything that I‘d ever 

been looking for my whole life. And now, here we are, with our future 

before us – and I only want to spend it with you‖. I, hence, dedicate this 

work to you. I love you. 

  



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Acknowledgment 

Prima facea, Gratitude is all to Allah for giving me enough strength to 

carry out this work. My sincere gratitude is also directed to my supervisor, 

Dr. Sufyan Abuarrah, who constantly offered me invaluable advice, very 

illuminating guidelines and constant encouragement. Your efforts and 

knowledge shall always be appreciated.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Table of Contents 
No. Content Page 

 Dedication iii 

 Acknowledgment iv 

 Declaration v 

 List of Tables vii 

 List of Figures viii 

 Abstract ix 

 Chapter One: Introduction 1 

1.1 Introduction 1 

1.2 Statement of Problem 3 

1.3 Significance of the Study 5 

1.4 Limitations of the Study 6 

1.5 Research Questions 7 

1.6 Thesis Chapters 7 

 Chapter Two: Literature Review 9 

2.1 Review of Related Literature 9 

2.2 Conclusion 16 

 Chapter Three: Methodology 17 

3.1 Methodology 17 

3.2 Theoretical Framework 19 

3.3 Why To Kill a Mockingbird? 20 

2.4 Relevance Theory: Possible Downfalls in its Application 21 

2.5 Conclusion 28 

 Chapter Four: Data Analysis 29 

4.1 Introduction 29 

4.1.1 Mutual Cognition in the Road to Interpretation 31 

4.1.2 Economic Discourse in To Kill a Mockingbird 34 

4.1.3 Relevance Approach to Economic References 38 

4.1.4 Political Discourse in To Kill a Mockingbird 41 

4.1.5 Relevance Approach to Political References 45 

4.2 Intertextuality and Faithfulness 51 

4.2.1 Intertextuality: An Illustration 53 

4.2.2 Religious Discourse in To Kill a Mockingbird 56 

4.2.3 Idiomatic Discourse in To Kill a Mockingbird 65 

4.2.4 Notes and Paratexts: Strengthening Interrelations 70 

 Chapter Five: Conclusion 80 

5.1 Is Faithfulness a Myth? 80 

5.2 Recommendations 85 

 References 87 

 ب الممخص 



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List of Tables 

No. Table Page 

(1) Translations of the Word ―Morphodite‖ 23 

(2) Translations of Economic References in To Kill a 

Mockingbird 

35 

(3) Possible Interpretations of Economic References in To 

Kill a Mockingbird 

39 

(4) Translations of Political References in To Kill a 

Mockingbird 

42 

(5) A Footnote of a Political Reference 43 

(6) Possible Interpretations of Political References in To 

Kill a Mockingbird 

45 

(7) A Suggested Footnote for Example 1 in Table (7) 48 

(8) Translations of Religious References in To Kill a 

Mockingbird 

56 

(9) The Biblical Allusion of ―Let this cup pass from you‖ 60 

(10) The Biblical Allusion of ―Let the dead bury the dead‖ 63 

(11) Translation of Idiomatic Instances in To Kill a 

Mockingbird 

66 

  



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List of Figures 

Figure No. Title Page 

Figure (1) Manifestations of Sharing or Lacking Contextual 

Knowledge 

33 

Figure (2) The Relationship Between Relevance and 

Faithfulness 

49 

Figure (3) The Tissues of Relations Between Texts 54 

 

  



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When Loyalties are Tested: The Myth of a Faithful Translator 

By 

Rowan Bani Nemrah 

Supervisor 

Dr. Sufyan Abuarrah 

Abstract 

When literal renderings are favored in the field of translation, sometimes in 

the rendering of literature, it betrays the original flavor of the ST. When 

one renders literally, s/he neglects the manifold of symbolism. This 

research is steered towards perceiving the concept of faithful translation 

from a perspective of Relevance Theory and intertextuality. This is so that a 

translator would keep in mind that there are other approaches by which s/he 

is able to maintain a level of faithfulness aside from the literal rendering of 

the words. To be faithful, as a matter of fact, depends on the theoretical 

perspective within which it is perceived. This study, therefore, aspires to 

construct a relative perspective from which one may perceive the concept 

of faithfulness. It is, accordingly, a comparative study which compares 

economic, political, biblical and idiomatic references from To Kill a 

Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960) to their Arabic translation by Al-Asadi. 

The first two categories are analyzed in the light of Relevance Theory (RT). 

The latter categories, however, are analyzed in the light of Intertextuality. 

Through the analysis, consequently, this study reaches the conclusion that 

in the light of RT and intertextuality, faithfulness is in fact a matter of a 

degree.  

 

 



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Chapter One 

Introduction 

1.1  Introduction 

It is since the advent of Translation Studies in the late 70s that more 

emphasis was put on the issue of loyalty. The place of a translator‘s loyalty 

is a long-standing inquiry to which many theoretical assumptions have 

been introduced. Hence, we would find many known scholars; 

e.g.Newmark (1988) who illustrates faithful translation as a process to 

render as closely as possible the terms as well as the aesthetics and form of 

the ST or Lefevere (1992) who sees translation as a process of rewriting. 

Both of the previous scholars incorporate their perception of translation in 

relation to the ST. Therefore, before attempting to construct a new 

perspective of faithful translation, it is important to note that this study 

looks at translation as a process of communication, following Hatim and 

Mason (1986). To be more specific, translation is generally seen ―to 

produce a target text that is as immediately relevant for the target reader as 

the source text is for the source language addressee‖ (House, 1997: 4). 

Though the fidelity question may be phrased otherwise, it, nonetheless, 

feeds into concocting an ideal comprehensive delimitation of what is 

perceived as faithful translation. The inimitable simplicity of the concept is 

the reason why there are scholars, e.g.Newmark (1988), Szirtes (2009) and 

Hatim (2014), who sketch their own perception of the term. Each theory is 

inclined to offer its own set of assumptions of what kind of indications 



2 
 

translation may subsume. In their generalities, each seem to be plausible 

enough for one to adopt as an act of faithfulness. Yet, various concerns 

emerge when such theories are to be applied on the translation of various 

texts. The various texts this study refers to are those of various genres to 

which each has its own specificities. One aspect which may receive a 

unanimous agreement while perceiving faithfulness in translation is to 

whom one is being faithful; that is to the source text (ST). 

Yet, presently, this thesis does not speak of the ideal, for aiming to define 

an ideal faithful translation is aiming for a purely theoretical set of 

assumptions of a concept which may be mythical in its accomplishment. 

Agreeing with Basil Hatim, this study is not looking for a definition of 

faithfulness through which a translation is merely a rendering of each word 

separately that are then to be rearranged to fit the target language 

syntactically(2014: 17). Such assumptions do not tackle the tangible reality 

and issues encountered in the path of a cross-cultural faithful translation. 

As such, this thesis takes up the cross-cultural aspect as an inherent 

milestone in its various theoretical approaches. This thesis, additionally, 

narrows its scope of research into that of literary translation in which the 

culture of the source text (ST) is best incorporated by variant degrees. It is 

more specifically narrowed down into studying the Arabic translation of a 

discursively and culturally loaded novel such as To Kill a Mockingbirdby 

Harper Lee (1960).  

 



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1.2  Statement of the Problem 

To highlight what a concept of faithful literary translation may entail 

requires an intensive indulgence in conducting a comparative analytical 

study between the ST, which is in this case To Kill a Mockingbird, and its 

Arabic translation. However, the issues that may arise in such context are 

generated from the fact that To Kill a Mockingbird is a work of 

―hyperinformativity‖ (Kazakova, 2015:2843). Its translation, accordingly, 

require[s] special means of expression and it ―involves many kinds of 

processing‖ so that the highly informative allusions and symbols do not 

lose their significance (Kazakova, 2015: 2843). 

However, loss, be it of content, connotations, symbols, effect or/and 

allusion, seems inevitable in the literal rendering of a literary work as the 

one being studied here. Apparently, it was sufficient for the Arabic 

translator to take the path of literal translation sidestepping the bulk of the 

implicated content provided in the novel. Such issue arises when the focus 

of the translator is dedicated to the text level, hence encouraging literal 

translation as the most neutral way of rendering semantic meaning. Though 

literal renderings may seem more favorable than others, yet, when it is 

―above the word level, literal translation becomes increasingly difficult‖ 

(Newmark, 1988: 70). Accordingly, the literal rendering of To Kill a 

Mockingbird into Arabic proves insufficient since a ―one-to-one 

translation‖ usually occurs when there is a ―cultural overlap‖ (Newmark, 

1988: 70). This is not the case here, however. As indicated earlier, the ST is 



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one that is heavy with discourses, allusions and connotations that are 

mostly relevant to the audience of the ST. Therefore, the implicated 

connotations in the TT would most likely disappear by virtue of them not 

being relevant to the target audience that does not share a mutual cognitive 

environment with the readers of the ST. Additionally, such cultural gap that 

generates from the cultural connotations and discourses of the ST may 

prove to be more ambiguous and undistinguishable since, somehow, the 

translator neglects ―the discovery of meaning‖ process which is ―the first 

stage of translation process‖ (Nida & Russell, 1982). In other words, to 

thoroughly read the ST constitutes a compulsory process before attempting 

a rendering of a text such as To Kill a Mockingbird. However, the Arabic 

translation of the novel does not depict any attempt of thorough reading of 

any of the instances behind which lies a manifold of implications and 

references. Other assumptions would be that the translator regarded the 

implicated meaning and discourses as either common knowledge that is 

easy to retrieve, or, as insignificant knowledge to be incorporated. Both 

options, however, remain a couple of assumptions to which it is hard to 

supplement a proof based on the translator‘s psychology. Our focus, thus, 

would not be on why the translator has made certain choices, but on what 

choices has been made and what their impact has been.  

The core theme, henceforth, is how could a translator, should s/he desire a 

faithful literary rendering while also attempting literal translation, approach 

a text as To Kill a Mockingbird. This thesis, consequently, brings forward 

the set of strategic assumptions stipulated by translation theories, as 



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Relevance Theory and Intertextuality, in its attempt to reach a delimitation 

of faithful translation based on the major tenets of each theory. Such 

theories are to be substantiated and applied respectively on To Kill a 

Mockingbird. While applying each of the theories separately, one would be 

able to outline the points of strength of each, and, most importantly, the 

points of weaknesses in working out a fully-fledged definition of faithful 

translation (as illustrated in Chapter Four, Section 4.1 – 4.1.6). All of this 

pours into determining whether faithfulness in translation is mythical or 

close to impossible.  

1.3  Significance of the Study 

 This study, accordingly, attempts to profoundly investigate the translation 

of To Kill a Mockingbird by looking into certain flaws and errors in the 

final result. This research, in other words, is to highlight the fact that 

translation is not limited to follow the literal rendering of a text and 

maintain its aesthetic features as Newmark (1988: 46) has illustrated. To 

the contrary, this study sheds that light on what lies behind the linguistic 

surface of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.  This study, accordingly, is to 

prove that to achieve a sense of faithfulness in literary translation, the  

translator is preferred to make a relationship with  the  ST  and  source  

author (Hakemi, 2013: 377) in order to raise his/her level of intuition in 

regards to the implicated meanings of the novel. In other words, it would 

seem to be of paramount importance that the translator applies more than 

one theoretical approach beside the application of the literal rendering of 



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the novel. Unless the reader (translator) is able to decipher what discourses 

and meanings the novel as a whole and its individual elements are 

supposed to indicate, and unless the translator is able to provide a close-to-

faithful rendering of a certain text, a combination of theoretical 

assumptions shall most likely prove to be vital when rendering a text as the 

one being studied in this novel.  

1.4 Limitations of the Study 

This study was intended to be a corpus-based research by which it analyzes 

the ST to several Arabic target texts. However, only one Arabic translation 

has been found. Therefore, the analysis has been limited to a comparative 

analytical study between the ST and the TT. It is important to note that the 

generalization reached by this study is applicable to a specific literary genre 

and cannot be said to be a generalization for all genres. In other words, it is 

specific of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960).  

Not to mention that, just like any other study, more research is still required 

to either back up or refute the hypothesis of this research. 

1.5 Research Questions  

Since this thesis is concerned with constructing a new flexible perspective 

of faithful translation, it attempts to answer the following questions: 

1. How would the main tenets of Relevance Theory (RT) offer support to 

the literal translation of To Kill a Mockingbird? How does a minimal-



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effort-maximal-effect condition assist in the pragmatic approach of To Kill 

a Mockingbird?  

2. What is the role of intertextuality in preserving or obtaining 

faithfulness? Were the intertextual tissues of relations maintained or lost in 

the Arabic rendering of the novel? What options does a translator have in 

order to better maintain these tissues? 

3. Is faithful literary translation too mythical to be genuinely 

accomplished?  

1.6  Thesis Chapters 

This thesis, therefore, would be divided into five chapters, each 

respectively and briefly is summarized below: 

Chapter One is a substantiated introduction of the main aspects of this 

thesis. It blatantly stipulates that seeking a delimitation of faithful literary 

translation is its ambition, and it presents To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper 

Lee (1960) as its sample study to which Relevance and intertextuality 

would be applied. It is accordingly divided into the following subsections: 

the statement of the problem, the significance of the study, the limitations 

of the study, the research questions and the structure of the thesis. 

Chapter Two includes a literature review which consist of relevant 

literature to faithfulness, RT and Intertextuality. 

Chapter Three revolves around the scope and methodology of the thesis. 

It illustrates the methodological approach the thesis attempts in sampling 



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the data and the theoretical framework upon which the analysis is based. It 

also includes a justification for choosing the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Chapter Four This chapter is based on Relevance theory and 

Intertextuality. It analyzes instances sampled from the novel To Kill a 

Mockingbird. Economic and political instances are analyzed and compared 

with their Arabic rendering in accordance with the main tenets of RT.  

In another section of the chapter, it studies the theme of Intertextuality in 

accordance with faithfulness. Through various conceptions and definitions 

of the term, an analysis is applied to some religious and idiomatic 

references. This is to deduce how much of the tissues of relations have 

been maintained and how much have been severed. Finally, a definition of 

faithfulness in light of intertextuality has also been included. 

Chapter Five This chapter initially sums up the findings of this thesis. It 

starts by referring to the overall approach of the thesis and its relevance 

some scholars; i.e. Sperber and Wilson (1986).  It also stipulates the set of 

conclusions this study reaches based on the theoretical frameworks applied 

here. It also finally answers the question of whether faithfulness is a myth 

or not.  

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Chapter Two 

Literature Review 

This thesis, accordingly, is set to look into the concept of faithfulness after 

laying a theoretical overview of previously related literature. In doing so, 

the thesis would be hopefully placed within its appropriate theoretical 

context through which the analysis shall take to the first step to proceed.  
 

2.1 Review of Related Literature  

By virtue of the nature of this research, a pressing issue initially arises with 

regard to what various delimitations we have of faithful translation. As 

stated previously, a concept as such is one that does not have a certain 

specificity. Horst Frenz (1973: 111), for instance, in his book The Art of 

Translation, asserts that every translational ―authority‖ calls for a faithful 

approach to translation. Such authorities, however, do not always mean the 

same thing by faithfulness (Frenz, 1973: 111). In other words, what a 

scholar may perceive as an act of faithfulness, to another, it may be 

manifested as that of treason or semi-faithfulness. Frenz‘s (1973) statement 

plays as a backup statement to the hypothesis of the present study. It is, to a 

degree, a reference to the undetermined definition of the concept of faithful 

translation. Each authority, as Frenz (1973) calls it, has its own perception 

of the term with no actual application in real translations. 

Newmark (1988: 31), for instance, even though he differentiates between 

Literal Translation and Faithful Translation in his book, he nonetheless 

portrays the image that literal translation is when the translator does not 



10 
 

abandon the SL text. Thus, to Newmark (1988), a definition of literal 

translation is akin to giving a definition of faithful translation. Rabassa 

(2006: 22), on the other hand, reproaches such view which merely depicts 

translation as a process of ―reproduction‖. Accordingly, in the rendering of 

a literary text, a substitution of source language words with equivalent 

target language words would not suffice. In other words, to literally render 

a literary text as the one being studied here, is akin to the process of 

reproducing the linguistic terminology without paying heeds to the 

pragmatic underlying structure of the text. 

Rabassa‘s (2006) view may be further justified by Alawi‘s (2010) 

illustration of intertextuality. According to Alawi (2010: 2240), 

intertextuality views a text as a ―tissue of relations‖. Thus, the reader, in 

our case the translator, would not be able to fathom a text if not ―put within 

its matrix of relations‖ (Alawi, 2010: 2240).  Hence, the reader‘s 

―experience in the culture of the language and their knowledge of the world 

are responsible for deciphering relationships among texts‖ (Alawi, 2010: 

2240), and accordingly in not having a gap in comprehension. Therefore, 

the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is one that consists of an interrelated tissue 

of relations. Such tissues of relations are the reason because of which such 

novel has been selected to be studied in this thesis (See Section 3.3).  

Boushaba (1988:1), on the other hand, disregards the concept of a ―passive 

translator‖. She stresses the fact that a translator shares a relationship with 

the meaning of the original text as well as with ―extralinguistic features‖ 



11 
 

(Boushaba, 1988: 1). She also asserts that the quality of literary translation 

should not be ―assessed in terms of sameness‖ but rather in terms of 

―approximate correspondence‖ (Boushaba, 1988: 1). By passiveness, 

Boushaba (1988) is actually referring to a similar aspect of literal 

translation. If a translator is to limit his/her rendering to be merely a literal 

rendering of the semantic meaning, then that translator is actually 

condemning him/herself to the state of a passive translator. Not to mention 

that the literary text undergoing the process of translation would lose lots of 

connotative implications and references.  

Noras (2013: 4), however, focuses more on the idea that literary translation 

is ―a work of art‖. The point of translation, does not focus on purely 

communicating the meaning of the words. According to her, a certain 

criteria must be fulfilled (Noras, 2013: 4). In other words, one is supposed 

to look into the features and elements that compose a literary work before 

starting the process of translation. Noras (2013: 4) also adds that the term 

literary includes different genres, each of which requires their own type of 

attention. Hence, a strategy applied to the rendering of poetry does 

necessarily apply to the rendering of a novel or drama.  

Consequently, in the translation of literary texts, faithfulness is to be 

regarded in terms of aesthetic and contextual features as much as in terms 

of content and form. Hakemi (2013: 386), on a different note, 

acknowledges that the level of aesthetic form and meaning can never be 

matched in the renderings of literary works from various languages. 



12 
 

Nonetheless, this does not mean that a literary translation should be 

avoided as it is the only way to enjoy the literature of other cultures, even if 

a translation ―reduces the flavor of the original‖ (Hakemi, 2013: 386). A 

loss of some sorts is bound to happen. What matters is that it is up to the 

translator to decide how and in what way should s/he make the level of loss 

to the minimum. In other words, a translator is to get rid of the status of 

passiveness and promote his/her status to that of a communicator.  

On the other hand, one might even come across works of scholars which 

tackle the concept of faithfulness in a more direct and meticulous way than 

others. Szirtes (2009: 1) states that: 

It means not putting in too much that isn't there; trying to maintain a 

respectable degree of similarity of tone and form; and hoping that the 

impression made on the reader in the receiving language resembles, as 

closely as possible … the impression made on the reader in the original 

language. 

However, what if the tone expressed in the ST is one behind which lies a 

manifold of implicitness. This is to say, in literary works, one cannot 

dismiss the extralinguistic feature which excessively saturates a literary 

work. According to Gutt (1996: 240):  

The art of the author often shows itself in the ability to communicate a 

richness of ideas, feelings and impressions that are not necessarily 

expressed in words, but communicated implicitly. 



13 
 

Thus, the question is: how would a translator communicate the same 

implicated meaning in a literary ST to the target readers? In such cases, 

henceforth, literal translation would not be viewed as the best approach to 

faithful translation of the ST. The reason is, in applying a literal approach, 

a translator cannot be able to minimize the cognitive existing gap between 

the author and the reader of the TT. On the contrary, the gap would expand 

and even go unnoticed by the oblivious target reader. Such cognitive gap is 

actually quite evident in the Arabic rendering of the novel To Kill a 

Mockingbird. Any reader would feel that there a huge chunk of meanings 

that are lost in the translation. Not to mention that the communicative clues 

which exist in the English ST have not been rendered into the Arabic TT. 

Therefore, the TT made it harder for the target readers to at least notice the 

intended communicative clues which would have guided them to search 

and analyze the implicated meanings of the text. 

Thus, how would a translator attempt to reduce the persisting cognitive gap 

which was created by the literal rendering of the novel? A suggested 

translation strategy, introduced by Jacobsen (2004), is to utilize explication 

in instances where it is believed a reader would not be able to recognize the 

implied meaning. Explication, however, would not suffice as a faithful 

translation strategy if a translator is to maintain the aesthetic as well as the 

content of the literary ST. Larsen (2010), for instance, suggests a less 

interventionist method to bridging the gap. Footnotes, according to him, are 

the best approach in the translation of a highly-aesthetic and full of 

implicature work as the Bible. Larsen (2010: 1) even illustrates that:  



14 
 

footnotes can enhance the chances of the Bible being accepted by its 

intended audience. Footnotes are used to give additional information and 

background which cannot be included in the translation itself.  

By using footnotes, hence, the translator would be able to maintain the 

sanctity of the ST as well as deliver the same intended content to the target 

reader. Subsequently, there would not be an issue by considering a faithful 

translation as a literal translation, as long as footnotes are included in the 

translation. This approach is also perceived to create a balance between the 

literal meaning of the source text, the syntactic structures and the context 

(Alshniet, 2014: 3).  

Hence, one aspect, which the present research intends to discuss, is that of 

the faithful rendering of the implicated meaning. Grice (1975), in his theory 

of conversational implicature, illustratively sketches two types of 

conversational implicature. According to him, a conversational implicature 

may be either generalized or particularized. When the first type does not 

require to be utilized in a certain context to be intelligible, the latter 

requires a specific context for the audience to understand the implied 

meaning.  

A key concept, therefore, arises. It is the concept of context. However, just 

like with the concept of faithfulness, scholars are yet to reach a consensus 

about what a concept of context may entail. According to Firth (1968: 14), 

a meaning of a specific context is ―the property of the mutually relevant 



15 
 

people, things, events …‖. Sperber and Wilson (1986: 15), on the other 

hand, define context as follows: 

A context is a psychological construct, a subset of the hearer's assumptions 

about the world. It is these assumptions, of course, rather than the actual 

state of the world, that affect the interpretation of an utterance. 

Accordingly, contrary to Firth‘s (1968) definition, a context is:  

not limited to information about the immediate physical environment or the 

immediately preceding utterances: expectations about the future, scientific 

hypotheses or religious beliefs, anecdotal memories, general cultural 

assumptions, beliefs about the mental state of the speaker, may all play a, 

role in interpretation. (Sperber et al. 1986: 15 – 16) 

Consequently, faithful literary translation is an issue of intricate levels. 

Should a translator attempt or claim to follow a faithful translation 

approach in literary texts, many points of focus are to be tackled in order to 

best delimit such faithful approach. A supposedly faithful translator of a 

literary text, hence, is to tamper with, but not limited to, form, content, 

aesthetics, implied meaning and context. All of these aspects pour into the 

fulfillment of one purpose: to reach a faithful rendering of the source text. 

While many scholars attempt to highlight certain strategies of maintaining 

faithful literal rendering, such as footnotes (Larsen, 2010) and explication 

(Jacobsen, 2004), a question of to what degree is this faithful strategy 

considered faithful arises. Accordingly, an ultimate faithfulness is an 

ambitious divine goal. To reach such a goal is only a matter of relativity.  



16 
 

2.2 Conclusion 

All in all, the initial theoretical context within which this thesis stems from 

is one that does not portray literal translation as the only favored approach 

to translation. To the contrary, it brings forward the concepts of context, 

underlying implicature and tissues of relations in order to illustrate that 

faithfulness is not necessarily achieved by the literal rendering of the 

words. Therefore, this thesis does not perceive translation as a mere 

replication of the ST terms. It focuses more on the underlying meaning and 

tissues of relations illustrated in To Kill a Mockingbird. 

  



17 
 

Chapter Three 

Corpus and Methodology 

This chapter is set to layout the methodology of the study and its theoretical 

framework. Such aspects have been introduced in accordance with the 

novel To Kill a Mockingbird upon which the whole chapter of Data 

Analysis is based.  

3.1 Methodology 

The data sampled for this study are taken from various chapters of To Kill a 

Mockingbird. In our discussion, you will find instances of the English 

source text along with their translations in the Arabic target text. The 

Arabic translation is conducted by Mr. Tawfiq Al-Asadi in 1984. Al-Asadi, 

in his translation, adopted a literal approach to the rendering of the    

heavy-with-implicature novel. Though the Arabic translation is somewhat 

faithful to the direct meaning of the words, yet, a lot of the implicated 

content, allusions and intended meanings are lost in the translation. 

 Therefore, when the translation of a literary text may appear to be     

source- oriented, one who is knowledgeable of the source text‘s 

implications and allusions would be able to distinguish the lack of the 

implicated connotations and references in the Arabic target text. Such lack 

is generated through the previously referred to cognitive gap. Not to 

mention the lack of mutual contextual intelligibility which results from a 

detachment of the target text that strips it of its implicated discourses. 

This study, accordingly, is set to analyze various instances of cultural, 



18 
 

historical, religious and idiomatic references. What implications are lost, 

their relevance to the narrative context as well as their relevance to 

extralinguistic discourses are to be specified. A comparison, thus, shall be 

conducted between the source text and the target text based on the 

previously stipulated aspects.  

In the application of such comparison, two theoretical frameworks are to 

provide the cornerstone of our analysis:  

1. Relevance Theory and how it may offer an improved version of the 

translation of the sampled instances. Not to mention, such application of 

this theory is to depict an approach to the rendering of these instances and 

what implicative choices it may offer to a translator (reader) in the tackling 

of such instances. This, subsequently, is to be sketched through an 

understanding of the concept of context.  

2. Intertextuality and the input it provides a translator to maintain or seek 

to maintain a faithful rendering of the novel. By depicting the ―tissue of 

relations‖ and external discourses the novel relates to, the translator has to 

choose a strategy that is best fit in maintaining this intricate ―tissue of 

relations‖ while also attempting to maintain both relevance and faithfulness 

(Alawi, 2010: 2240).  

Given the above points, this research would suggest certain possible 

renderings of the instances stipulated in the data analysis. In doing so, the 

study would be able to distinguish the literal rendering of the novel and the 



19 
 

losses of the implications and tissues of relations. Not to mention that this 

is set in order to suggest possible strategies in backing up each of the above 

theoretical strategies in order to best reach the goal of this research, which 

is to highlight a more flexible perspective of faithful translation. 

3.2 Theoretical Framework 

The present study is concerned with the literal Arabic translation of the 

novel To Kill a Mockingbird. As it is manifested through the previous 

studies, i.e.Rabassa (2006), a literal approach to the translation of literary 

text would not suffice. An existing cognitive gap continues to exist through 

the translator/reader‘s dismissal of what is beyond the linguistic 

components of a literary text.  

Thus, the focus of this study is not the semantic meanings of the novel and 

how they are rendered into Arabic. What the study focuses on is the effect 

the novel inflects on the target readers or the audience‘s response. The 

response being addressed here is that of what Nida (1993) perceives to be 

achieved through dynamic equivalence. According to Nida (1993), there 

are two levels: the minimal and the maximal levels. The first level is 

perceived as the ability of the target readers ―to comprehend [the text] to 

the  point  that  they  can  conceive  of  how  the  original  readers  of  the 

text must have understood and appreciated it‖ (Nida, 1993: 118). The latter 

level, however, is seen as the ability of the target reader to ―understand and 

appreciate  [the text] in  essentially  the  same  manner  as  the  original   



20 
 

readers  did‖(Nida, 1993: 118). In both levels, the focus is centered around 

the audience‘s response. 

 Hence, in this study, the purpose is to investigate how the Arabic 

translation of To Kill a Mockingbird would be best modified to reach, if not 

the ideal maximal level, a moderate level between the two. The mutual 

intended response of the translator/reader is that of an equivalent 

understanding of the implicated discourses and their relevance to the 

context of the novel. Such ambition is to be sought after through our main 

concept of faithfulness. This is in order to see whether faithfulness and 

mutual comprehension are compatible in their perceptions.  

3.3 Why To Kill a Mockingbird? 

Aside from the fact that this is a novel that belongs to the 20
th
 century, a 

period so volatile and filled with transitional processes as well as societal, 

economic and political issues which subsequently were reflected in its 

literature, such novel is one that is heavily loaded with discourses, symbols 

and allusions. Each of these elements are parts and parcels in the formation 

of a novel that portrays the world from a child‘s perspective. Such elements 

are fundamental in the intellectual development of the novel‘s main 

protagonist ―Scout‖ and the reader as well. It is for the reader to expand 

his/her knowledge of certain societal issues that such elements are 

employed. Their significance, accordingly, is one not to be intentionally 

marginalized or absentmindedly dismissed while translating. Not only due 

to their intended content, but also due to the connotations they acquire by 



21 
 

virtue of the text in which they are used, the dominant discourse they relate 

to and the other implicated less-prominent discourses they allude to out of 

the novel.  

This is, therefore, the reason why this novel is used as a sample study. Its 

Arabic translation is one that needs to be thoroughly investigated in terms 

of the translation strategies applied and in light of some translation theories 

to determine: whether significant elements are faithfully rendered, to what 

degree various discourses are maintained, to what degree the novel is 

relevant to the target text (TT)/ source text (ST) readers and the type of 

translation theories that may be used in our attempt to best reach and 

understand the no-longer simple concept of faithful translation. Henceforth, 

what this thesis seeks is an analysis of faithfulness in the light of the 

previously mentioned theories. This is to hopefully reach, in the 

conclusion, a delimitation of faithful literary translation that is founded on 

the principles set by relevance theory and intertextuality.  

3.4 Relevance Theory: Possible Downfalls in its Application 

Even after the application of RT to infer interpretations adequate with the 

speaker‘s/author‘s intended meaning, yet, many criticisms may be directed 

to many aspects of the theory. Some of these criticism are to be sketched 

below in accordance with our analysis of the aforementioned instances of 

the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.  

 



22 
 

A. Shared Content: this is a prevalent issue which one is able to perceive 

through our previous analysis. In the analysis, it was set in the light of a 

presupposed ―minimal level of comprehension‖ in order to see how a 

translator (reader) ―can conceive of how the original readers of the text 

must have understood and appreciated it‖ (Nida, 1993: 118). The step to 

doing so was previously illustrated, in the section of Mutual Cognition in 

the Road to Interpretation, in which it discusses how mutual cognition is 

key in reaching a relevant interpretation according to RT. This mutual 

knowledge constitutes a knowledge of the context(s) intended by the 

speaker. However, no matter how much one claims to know the intended 

context and meaning of the author, Cartson (2001: 10) illustrates that:  

As a patently non-demonstrative inference process, it sometimes fails and 

doesn‘t come up with the intended meaning.  And when it is successful 

what is achieved is seldom a perfect replication in the hearer‘s mind of the 

very assumptions the speaker intended to communicate.  An utterance, like 

any ostensive stimulus, usually licenses not a single interpretation, but any 

one of a number of interpretations with very similar import; provided the 

addressee recovers one of these, comprehension is successful, that is, it is 

good enough. 

In other words, one can never replicate one hundred percent the exact 

intended meaning of the author. Thus, when the study provided in Table (7) 

above possible interpretations, these interpretations are not exclusive. In 

other words, other translators may be able to infer more relevant 



23 
 

interpretations than the ones suggested here. Relevance, as it is already 

deduced from its name, is a matter of degree. Henceforth, when one 

interpretation may appear ―faithful‖ to a certain point, another translator / 

reader / scholar may be able to find an interpretation of a larger ―degree of 

faithfulness‖ than the other.  

B. Stimuli and Intuition: stimuli or as Gutt (1989: 199) refers to them as 

―communicative clues‖ are fundamental in inferring and interpretation. 

Gutt (1989: 199) illustrates what he means by communicative clues as: 

those which have a ―communicative value … that it draws the audience's 

attention to that part of the utterance that is most relevant, that is, intended 

to make the greatest contribution to contextual effects‖. Such clues are not 

merely to be inferred through the intentions of the author, but also through 

the stylistics the author uses. Such clues call for a reader‘s/translator‘s 

intuition in order to take notice of something to which the author wants the 

reader to pay attention.  

In other words, a translator / reader is to be intuitive enough to not look 

into merely what lies behind the words, but what stylistic doors are used to 

let the translator/ reader pass through. Take for example the following 

instances from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird in Table (1): 

Table (1): Translations of the Word “Morphodite” 

No. ST TT 

1.  ―… erected an absolute 

morphodite…‖ (77) 

 (351..." ) حمثاالً مخىثاً حماماً "...ٌمذ ٔصت 

2.  ―… our Absolute Morphodite‖ (80) "(361" )حمثانىا انثهجً انمخىث 

3.  ―You mean the Morphodite?‖ (84)  ٍٕٓ(386؟" )انمخىثانخمثال "ً٘ رؼ 



24 
 

In the above table, the protagonist, Scout, repeats something she heard and 

mentions it three times in the same chapter. In the second and third times 

she mentions ―the morphodite‖ it is capitalized. It being capitalized is due 

to this word being a mispronunciation made by Scout; which is intended by 

the author. What Scout intends to say is ―hermaphrodite‖. However, she is 

unable to pronounce the correct word; which is an indication of her young 

age and inability to comprehend what is meant by the word. The last time 

she repeats the word is when she speaks to Miss Maudi. This is depicted in 

the last page of the chapter. Miss Maudi‘s reaction, however, is to laugh 

uncontrollably on how much gullible Scout is in making such a mistake. 

Yet, Scout remains unknowing to the reason of Miss Maudi‘s reaction. The 

author, however, presupposes that the reader knows the correct spelling of 

the word and thus would be able to understand the reason of Miss Maudi‘s 

reaction. 

 This reference to the intended meaning is not coded into words. The 

reader, however, is to get a communicative clue by two factors: one, the 

first mispronunciation; and two, the repetition of the word in capital letters. 

The translator / reader, accordingly, must be intuitive enough to notice that 

there is something intended by this non – arbitrary action. However, for 

some unknown reason, Al – Asadi misses this communicative clue and 

translated the word literally as: "اٌّخٕش" (back translation: hermaphrodite). 

Such literal translation with no compensation for the lost stylistic features 

resulted in a loss of the intended meaning in the last instance. Thus, an 

Arabic reader, would never be able to understand the reason for Miss 



25 
 

Maudi‘s reaction at the end. Accordingly, no matter how knowledgeable a 

translator may be, his/her intuition is never impeccable to notice all of the 

intended meanings.  

C. Over - Translation: even though the study aspires by RT to replicate 

as much as it can the meaning of the ST, ―a zeal to replicate the source text 

[would lead] translators to overdo their bit and come up with a target text 

which one could call a product of the process of ‗overtranslation‘‖ (Singh, 

2004: 57). Hence, as one may notice, in some of the suggested 

interpretations for the instances provided in the previous sections, RT made 

more flexible to us to add words to maximize relevance when necessary. 

Take, for instance, Example 1 in Table (1): ―nothing to buy and no money 

to buy it with‖. For this example, this interpretation: ت "ٌُ ٌىٓ ٕ٘بٌه ِبي ثغج 

 back translation: There was no money due to the Great) اٌىغبد االلزصبدي"

Depression) is deemed as the most relevant interpretation. What was done 

in this interpretation is that the expression ―the Great Depression‖ was 

added in order to make clear the reference to the political discourse in the 

utterance. However, a novel as To Kill a Mockingbird is one that is not 

limited to the instances stipulated in this study. This novel is actually 

loaded with similar and other references. Thus, to be free to add whatever 

is necessary to reach the most relevant interpretation is what would leave 

us with the undesirable end result of overtranslation.  

 

 



26 
 

D. Footnotes: Even though this strategy has not been directly introduced 

as a major tenet of RT, it, nonetheless, has been attested that it is useful; 

especially when one may expect to fail to communicate the intended 

presupposition of the author. Gutt (1989: 292) further elaborates on this 

idea:  

Being aware that there his translation will not meet the expectations of the 

audience and hence mislead them, the translator can consider strategies for 

preventing communicative failure, for example by alerting the audience to 

the problem and correcting the difference by some appropriate means, such 

as footnotes, comments on the text or the like. 

The reason for suggesting such strategy while dealing with RT is because 

that no matter how relevant an interpretation may be, something would 

remain missing. A cognitive gap may still persist even after providing an 

interpretation of high relevance. Take, for instance, the example:              

―sit – down strikes‖. For this example, the study suggested the 

interpretation:   "ًّإضشاة ِغ ِالصِخ ِىبْ اٌؼ"(back translation: A strike while 

staying in the place of work) as  the most relevant interpretation. However, 

many issues that result out of this interpretation are to be taken into 

consideration. First, this interpretation is akin more to an explanation rather 

than a possible rendering. This generates from the fact that there is no 

direct equivalence of the English expression in the Arabic language. 

Another issue is that even after giving such an interpretation/ explanation, a 

cognitive gap may persist. This cognitive gap may generate due to an 



27 
 

Arabic reader who does not have the background knowledge of ―sit-down 

strikes‖ being characteristic of the economic situation in the 1930s in 

America. Thus, if a translator takes the latter issue into consideration, then 

this translator may suggest an elaborate interpretation/explanation to the 

term (for instance; a strike while staying in the place of work; which was a 

phenomenon common in the period of Great Depression). Such lengthy 

interpretation, however, adds more explanation which results in the 

previously discussed issue of ―overtranslation‖.  

Accordingly, through our previous analysis in Section 3.4, the study 

suggested footnoting as a strategy to better supply the reader of the Arabic 

translation with an enough background. The use of footnotes, in this case, 

would not very much betray the stylistic form of the ST while 

simultaneously establishing an adequate background within the minds of 

the readers. This is more stressed by Larsen (2010: 1) who says that: 

―Footnotes are used to give additional information and background which 

cannot be included in the translation itself‖.  While some might argue that 

Larsen‘s recommendation of the use of footnotes is specific to the 

translation of the Bible, Saini (2015: 392) states that: ―researchers found 

that To Kill a Mockingbird ranked second only to the Bible as making a 

difference in people‘s lives‖. In other words, due to the nature of the novel 

as being close to the Bible in teaching morality, its rendering might as well 

adopt footnoting as a strategy to not lose the intended connotations.  

   



28 
 

3.5  Conclusion  

To conclude, the instances taken from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird 

would be the foundation of the Data Analysis chapter. The thesis thus 

would divide the analysis in the following chapter into sections of 

Relevance Theory (Sections 4.1.1 – 4.1.2) and Intertextuality         

(Sections 4.2). 

 

 

 

  



29 
 

Chapter Four 

Data Analysis 

4.1 Introduction 

Till now, one may say that faithfulness has no clear-cut set of assumptions 

by which one may judge a translation as being loyal. Yet, some scholars 

such as Newmark (1988), Hatim (2014), etc, incorporate their own 

definitions of the term. Newmark (1988: 46), for instance, states that 

faithful translation ―transfers cultural words and preserves the degree of 

grammatical and lexical abnormality‖. However, definition as such may 

prove too literal to intelligibly communicate the sense of the ST. Newmark 

(1988: 170) further argues that, in the rendering of a novel, a translator can 

―delete or banish [the cultural word] to some note or glossary‖. 

Encouraging the method of omission, however, does not help in our 

attempt to delimit a definition of faithful literary translation.  

Whether it is the sense, message or / and effect that one seeks to 

accomplish by a faithful rendering is left for one‘s own decision making. 

Hence, in the translation of literary texts, attention may be focused more on 

the most prominent contributing feature of a text. However, to focus on a 

feature and dismiss another steps over the presumably initiative approach 

of faithfulness. Not to mention that a word-for-word rendering has already 

been dismissed as being an approach in literary translation (as stated by 

Rabassa (2006) in Section 2). When some may view a word-for-word 

approach as more faithful than the rendering of a one literary feature, yet, 



30 
 

by adopting this approach, one is actually stripping the literary work from 

its cultural, literary, aesthetic and discursive features. This is further 

stressed by Kroeber (1923: 102) who says that ―culture, then, began when 

speech was present, and from then on, the enrichment of either means the 

further development of the other‖. In another words, the language of a text 

cannot be detached from the cultural context and its connotations which a 

literary work may uphold. 

Thus, faithful translation cannot be reduced in its conception to that of a 

word-for-word approach alone. The concept of faithfulness has more to it 

than meets the eye. The translator, hence, is to be both a reader and a 

translator simultaneously. According to Singh (2004:63), a translator, 

―through the twin processes of comprehension and formulation‖, seeks to 

discover: ―who wrote the text and underwhat socio-political conditions, 

who were/are its readers and what were their social compositions, and, at 

which point of time the text emerged‖.  

Singh (2004: 63) even elaborates that literary translators: 

are finding meanings in a text in relation to the world of meaning of the 

target language semantics as well as interms of its possible readings (which 

each one of them thinks ispossible) in the source culture and community. 

The key idea which one may deduce from the above discussion is that 

context, with all its aspects, is of paramount importance in the rendering of 

literary works. As Silverstein (1985: 222) puts it, ―the communication force 



31 
 

of culture‖ is not limited to linguistic representations. It extends to include 

―an intersubjective communicative context‖ which links one context to 

another. Hence, in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the 

discursive culture the novel intends to portray is intertwined with other 

societal, religious, political and feminist discourses. A word-for-word 

approach to the rendering of such narrative would prove to be a futile 

strategy attempted by the translator; Al-Asadi.  

4.1.1 Mutual Cognition in the Road to Interpretation 

A translation theory which functions in accordance with context is that of 

Relevance Theory. Context, in fact, constitutes a major pillar to the 

foundation of Relevance.  Sperber and Wilson (1986: 15), as stated 

previously, define context as follows:  

A context is a psychological construct, a subset of the hearer's assumptions 

about the world. It is these assumptions, of course, rather than the actual 

state of the world, that affect the interpretation of an utterance. 

Hence, according to Sperber and Wilson‘s (1986: 16) model of RT, ―a 

speaker who intends an utterance to be interpreted in a particular way must 

also expect the hearer to be able to supply a context which allows that 

interpretation to be recovered‖. In other words, both the speaker and hearer 

are to share a mutual set of assumptions that would lead to the same 

intended interpretation.  

 



32 
 

Yet, Sperber et. al. (1986: 119) depict views through which the notion of 

mutual knowledge appears to be an unrealistic ideal. According to them, 

relevance is best reached when the greatest contextual effect is 

accomplished. However, context is part of relevance, thus to determine 

which interpretation is more probable than another may prove uneasy to do 

since ―there is no way of controlling exactly which context someone will 

have in mind at a given moment‖ (Sperber et al., 1986: 119). In other 

words, their view of relevance and the most probable interpretation is one 

that is ―not conclusive‖(Sperber et al., 1986: 119). 

Consequently, some of the questions that this chapter sheds the light on are: 

(A) since this study is interested in the faithful rendering of the implicated 

contextual meaning in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, how would a 

translator be able to determine which interpretation is most relevant to the 

overall framework of the novel (the relativity of an interpretation)? (B) 

Prior to that, if a translator lacks the cognitive knowledge of the author, 

given the variation in cultural origins, how would the translator be able to 

determine whether there is something implicated in an utterance or not 

(cognitive intuition)?  

Naturally, a lack of prior cognitive and contextual knowledge would not 

result in the process of generating various interpretations through which a 

translator is to decide which is most relevant. Accordingly, the reader / 

translator would make do with only having the semantic meaning in mind. 

Hence, this would result in a detachment of the implicated meaning in the 



33 
 

literal rendering of a literary text ( as illustrated in Figure (1) below): 

 

Figure (1): Manifestations of Sharing or Lacking Contextual Knowledge 

This chapter, therefore, works in making a comparison between the English 

source text and the Arabic target text of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Such comparison is to be made in terms of the economic, historical, 

political, feminist, religious and idiomatic implicated references, some of 

which exist in the ST but are lost in the Arabic TT. In the analysis, hence, 

some major concepts of Relevance Theory, such as: context, the degree of 

relevance, contextual effect, etc., are to be employed in order to best 

suggest alternative renderings of the cited instances (See Sections 4.1.1 & 

4.1.2). Additionally, issues which may generate from adopting this 

approach are also to be included. This is to work out whether relevance 

theory accomplishes a degree of faithfulness that allows it to be referred to 

as a faithful approach to translation. 

 



34 
 

In the following pages, therefore, Section 4.1 shall have four subsections 

(4.1.2 – 4.1.5). Each of these sections deals with a specific aspect in 

accordance with RT. The final section, however, will be a conclusion to the 

overall analysis on whether relevant is faithful or not. 

4.1.2 Economic Discourse in To Kill a Mockingbird 

Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird in an attempt to depict prejudice 

and racism through a child‘s perspective, Scout‘s. Through Scout‘s eyes, 

her interaction with others, her dialogues with Atticus, her father, and her 

internal monologues, the novel depicts Scout as a color-blind character  

who  fraternizes  with  Blacks  as  humans (Rezazade & Zohdi, 2016: 1). 

We, as readers, live through her. Thus, we live through the evolvement of 

her character while witnessing her father, Atticus, defending a black man 

who is unjustly accused of committing a crime.  

Even though this is the predominant idea upon which the novel is based, 

yet, one who had the opportunity to read the novel would acknowledge that 

racism is not the sole thing that is being depicted there. Actually, other 

instances are noticed which do not only reflect the racist discriminating 

American society in which Scout lives. Accordingly, the context is not 

merely given to be that of racism. Blakemore (1994a: 49-50), for instance, 

illustrates that ―in much of the literature, it is explicitly or implicitly 

assumed that the context for the comprehension of a given utterance is not 

a matter of choice. At any given point in a verbal exchange, the context is 

seen as uniquely determined‖. In other words, one should not merely look 



35 
 

into the predominant discourse of racism. Instances of the novel also 

portray references of economic, political, societal, feminist and religious 

discourses. Notwithstanding the historical references. All of which are 

intertwined in such a way that best portrays the American society in the 

1930s.  

In this section, subsequently, instances of economic references from the 

English source text are to be processed in comparison with their Arabic 

renderings. This is to help best perceive how certain utterances, which may 

seem innocent in their semantic meaning, are in their actuality a key to the 

external socio - economic situation of the American community. Through 

the comparison, the fundamental tenets of RT are to accompany our 

analysis step-by-step in order to, hopefully, delimit a semi-adequate 

definition of faithful translation.  

Take, for instance the following examples:  

Table (2): Translations of Economic References in To Kill a 

Mockingbird. 

No. ST TT 

1.  There was no hurry, for there was 

nowhere to go, nothing to buy, and no 

money to buy it with. (6) 

ٌُ رىٓ ٕ٘بن حبجخ إٌى اٌؼجٍخ، فال ِىبْ ٌز٘ت 

َال شًء ٌبخاعُوً َال مال ٌبخاعُن إٌبط إٌٍٗ، 

 (31)  بً.

2.  … and the crash hit them hardest. (23)  أشذ ِب رىْٛ ػٍٍُٙ.   االقخصادٌتاألسمت ٚلذ وبٔذ

(16) 

3.  There were sit – down strikes in 

Birmingham. (132) 

  (261) فً ثشِٕغٙبَ. اعخصاماثفمذ وبٔذ ٕ٘بن 

 

 



36 
 

In Table (2), there are three different instances that allude to the economic 

discourse which permeates the air in the narrative setting. Not to mention 

that such instances are also of reference to the economic situation in 1929; 

which was characterized with the economic depression. Such allusion 

naturally occurs by virtue of the temporal setting during which 

discrimination relied on the economic situation as one of its factors.  

In Example 1, for instance, the first utterance is embedded within the flow 

of utterances as if simply referring to the fleeting economic situation of the 

people. Nonetheless, it alludes to a more pressing discourse that marked the 

year of 1929 till the end of 1930s. Such reference is deduced through the 

setting in which Scout starts to narrate her upbringing as well as the time 

during which the plot starts to evolve. Hence, Harper Lee is not merely 

referring to an arbitrary state, but refers to the state of the Great 

Depression, a time during which people suffered financially. 

In the translation of this utterance, subsequently, Al-Asadi attempted a 

literal approach to its rendering by which only the semantic meaning is 

transferred: ―.ًَال شًء ٌبخاعُوً َال مال ٌبخاعُن ب”. To a reader, who does not 

share the same economic and historical background of the American 

society as well as a reader who misses to locate the narrative within its 

temporal timeframe, the Arabic rendering would appear to be detached 

from the economic discourse the novel refers to. Hence, a loss of 

connotations occurs through such rendering by which the first breach of 

faithfulness appears. 



37 
 

Such loss of connotation may be due to many reasons: the translator 

dismissed such information as being either irrelevant, the translator missed 

the relevance of the utterance to the Great Depression or the translator 

lacks historical knowledge of the temporal setting during which the 

narrative takes place.  

The same could be said about examples 2 and 3 in Table (2) above. 

Example 2, for instance, refers to what is known as the Stock Market Crash 

in 1929. The author, however, uses the word ―crash‖ alone. A reader who 

shares the same historical background would be able to know that this is an 

allusion to the Stock Market Crash  even if the name of the incident is 

shortened. What Al-Asadi, did, however, was to translate it into: " األسمت

" االقخصادٌت  (back translation: the economic crisis). Though the name of the 

incident does implicate in its generality an economic crisis, it, nonetheless, 

proves to be unfaithful to use the generic term rather than using a direct 

equivalent in referring to the incident.  

Example 3, however, is one that depicts a major issue. ―Sit-down strikes‖ is 

a term used to allude to a specific phenomenon of the Great Depression. 

This term was used to refer to strikes conducted by factory workers who 

would ―sit down‖ during work in strikes to achieve their demands. Al-

Asadi, on the other hand, rendered it as  "اػزصبِبد"(back translation: sit-

ins). This rendering portrays certain issues due to many aspects: it is a 

translation of a term that is not fully equivalent to the original source word,  

 



38 
 

and, it dismisses an allusion to incidents that were specific to the era of the 

Great Depression.  

Thus, how would such implicative references be faithfully rendered? 

According to Calvino (1981: 61), ―there can exist no dictionary that will 

translate into words the burden of obscure allusions that lurks in these 

things‖. Accordingly, it may prove difficult to find equivalence to 

implicated connotations. This is why, RT is applied to try and suggest 

relevant interpretations.  

4.1.3 Relevance Approach to Economic References 

The translator's first and major difficulty ... is the construction of a new 

ideal reader who, even if he has the same academic, professional and 

intellectual level as the original reader, will have significantly different 

textual expectations and cultural knowledge. 

— (Coulthard, 1992:12) 

In the above quote, Coulthard (1992) refers to the idea of an ―ideal reader‖. 

This happens in accordance with the cognitive background which the 

translator / reader shares with the author of the source text. Such 

assumptions are considered in terms of the translator‘s ―intuition about the 

effort some task would take and the effect it might achieve‖ (Sperber et. al. 

1986: 131). Thus, the following assumptions may be considered as 

interpretations of various degrees of relevance:  



39 
 

Table (3): Possible Interpretations of Economic References in To Kill a 

Mockingbird 

ST Possible Interpretations in 

Arabic 

Back Translation 

1.nothing to buy, 

and no money to 

buy it with. 
 

 

 فٍُ ٌىٓ ٕ٘بٌه ِبي ٌٍششاء ثغجت اٌفمش .3

فبٌٕبط وبٔٛا فمشاء ثغجت األصِخ  .2

 االلزصبدٌخ

ٌُ ٌىٓ ٕ٘بٌه ِبي ثغجت اٌىغبد  .1

 االلزصبدي.

1.There was no money due to 

poverty 

2.People were poor due to 

the economic crisis 

3.There was no money due to 

the Great Depression 

2.… and the 

crash hit them 

hardest.  

أصشد ثُٙ األصِخ االلزصبدٌخ أشذ ِب  .3

 ٌّىٓ.

أصش ثُٙ أٍٙبس عٛق اٌجٛسصخ أشذ ِب  .2

 ٌّىٓ.

1.The economic crisis 

affected them most 

2.The Stock Market Crash 

affected them the most 

3.There were sit 

– down strikes 
 

 اػزصبِبد  .3

 إضشاة ِغ ِالصِخ ِىبْ اٌؼًّ .2

1.Sit – ins. 

2.A strike while staying in 

the place of work. 

As perceived above, each of the possible interpretations constitute a 

varying degree of relevance to the intended economic connotations. In 

Example 1, the most relevant interpretation to a translator / reader, with 

some economic and historical background of the American society, would 

be Interpretation 3. Such interpretation is what actually hits the nail on the 

head. In Example 2, the most relevant interpretation is Interpretation 2, and 

the same could be said about Example 3.  

However, for a translator to access such interpretations depends on whether 

there is some kind of a phenomenon that ―pre-empts‖ the translator‘s / 

reader‘s attention (Sperber et. al. 1986: 153). Accordingly, ―what helps us 

to achieve cognitive effects‖ is called a ―stimulus‖ (Sperber et. al. 1986: 

153). This means that the degrees of relevance of the aforementioned 

instances are determined by virtue of the stimuli provided. Hence, when 

some may argue that the above interpretations may require a lot of effort to 



40 
 

access in comparison to the effect achieved, their argument would be 

disputed by that in the ST, or the instances in Table (7), there is a 

production of stimuli. This intended stimuli, is what ―gears us to the 

maximization of relevance‖ (Sperber et. al. 1986: 153). 

According to Sperber et. al. (1986: 153), stimuli may be defined as follows: 

―Ostensive stimuli… must satisfy two conditions: first, they must attract 

the audience's attention; and second, they must focus it on the 

communicator's intentions‖. In other words, it is up to the translator / reader 

to be intuitive enough to notice that there is stimuli in the above implicative 

connotations. When a translator / reader notices that the author intends to 

subtly communicate something, then the perception would be geared 

towards comprehending the author‘s intention. These are the conditions to 

which the translator, Al-Asadi, does not seem to adhere. Subsequently, the 

result was having a non-faithful rendering of the above instances that 

resulted in the semantic meaning only and a stripping of the instances from 

their context (as illustrated in Table (7) above).  

The analysis of these instances, however, is not enough to establish the idea 

of whether relevance theory is the other face to the coin of faithfulness. As 

such, below, more analysis is conducted on instances of other references 

and discourses. 

 

 



41 
 

4.1.4 Political Discourse in To Kill A Mockingbird 

Aside from the economic discourse in To Kill A Mockingbird, political 

discourse is also a fundamental characteristic of the novel. Political 

discourse actually proves to be more prominent than other discourses in its 

relation to racism. Hence, a reader encounters lots of political references, 

instances and allusions of which their rendering must be tackled with such 

delicacy that does not betray the essence implicitly communicated by the 

author.  

Al-Asadi depicts an awareness of the political features of the novel. The 

novel is not limited to merely depicting relations of power and social 

discrimination. It actually goes beyond the narrative framework to include 

political and historical references of the external world. Al-Asadi, in some 

of the most pressing instances of political references, made the choice of 

using footnotes to explicate and locate such instances within their context. 

Footnoting technique is one which is considered as the best translation 

strategy in the rendering of the Bible (Larsen, 2010: 1). According to Saini 

(2015: 1), researchers found  that  To  Kill  a  Mockingbird  came  second  

only  to  the Bible in affecting people‘s lives. Thus, this makes the use of 

footnotes more justified.  

However, since the novel is loaded with the political references, Al- Asadi 

only used footnotes to explicate direct and obvious political references, 

such as political events, battles, politicians and historical dates. Yet, there 

are some political instances and phrases which are not explicitly used in the 



42 
 

ST. They, nonetheless, constitute such stimuli for the reader / translator to 

pay heed to.  

Take, for instance, the following examples in Table (4): 

Table (4): Translations of Political References in To Kill a Mockingbird 

No. ST TT 

1.  If General Jackson hadn‘t run the 

Creeks up the creek (1). 

فٍٛ أْ اٌجٕشاي جبوغْٛ ٌُ ٌطشد "اٌىشٌه" 
2  

  

 (31ٌٚجؼٍُٙ ٌٙشثْٛ ثبرجبٖ أػٍى إٌٙش. )

2.  Nothing to fear but fear itself (6)  ٌٍظ ػٍى عىبٔٙب أْ ٌخبفٛا أي شًء ػذا اٌخٛف

 (31ٔفغٗ )

The aforementioned examples in Table (4) are selected as instances of 

reference to external political allusions. Such instances are not directly 

related to the politics of the novel. Yet, they are meticulously incorporated 

in such a way that depicts the influence of the political situation on the 

people in the 1930s, more specifically on the people within the spatial 

setting of the narrative. Their renderings, thus, portray the same political 

effect the ST holds on its readers. For this purpose, the above instances 

uphold various features that distinguish them from each other.  

Starting with Example 1, this is an utterance produced by Scout at the very 

beginning of the novel. Through it, Scout makes a reference to some 

historical event initiated by a historical figure, General Jackson. To an 

Arabic reader, the literal rendering of the phrase would not make much 

sense due to lack of the American historical background. Al-Asadi, 

accordingly, seems to realize such thought and rendered the phrase 

accompanied with a footnote. In the footnote, thus, Al-Asadi illustrates in 

Arabic who is General Jackson and the Creeks. Notice Table (5) below:  



43 
 

Table (5): A Footnote of a Political Reference 

The Footnote ( لجٍٍخ  ٕ٘ذٌخ حّشاء ِٓ عىبْ أالثبِب األصٍٍٍٓ، ٚلذ ٘ضُِٙ أٔذسٚ جبوغْٛ فً 51ارحبد )

 ( )اٌّزشجُ( 3831 – 3831حشة اٌىشٌه )

Back 

Translation 

(2) A union of (50) indigenous Native American tribes in Alabama. 

They were defeated by ((Andrew Jackson)) in the Creek War in 1813 

– 1814 (The Translator) 

In the above example, the translator made use of the strategy of footnoting 

in order to situate the utterance within its adequate historical context in the 

mind of the Arabic reader. As such, the Arabic reader would be able to 

draw a picture of the historical event. The translator, thus, was able to 

evade the confusion that would have occurred should he have rendered the 

utterance literally with no explication whatsoever. Accordingly, in many 

places in the novel, the translator used footnotes to explicate such 

references to historical events and figures.  

Hence, should one consider that the use of footnotes in the Arabic 

translation of the novel brought it closer to the route of faithfulness? To a 

degree, some aspect of faithfulness to the ST is maintained by supplying 

the Arabic audience with the appropriate historical background when 

needed in the footnotes. On the other hand, loss remains inevitable even 

when applying the strategy of footnotes. The idea that Al-Asadi used 

footnotes to explicate instances as the one mentioned in Example 1 has 

already been established. However, he only used footnotes only for similar 

instances. Not to mention that even when he incorporated footnotes, they 

were specific to historical and political references akin to Example 1. 

Example 1, however, still depicts a loss of a feature even after the use of 

footnotes. This feature is the idiomatic feature. In Example 1, the author 



44 
 

uses the instance both informatively and idiomatically. The informative use 

is obvious and easy to render through the semantic rendering and the use of 

footnotes. The idiomatic use, on the other hand, is manifested through the 

use of the phrase: ―up the creek‖. ―Up the creek‖ is an idiom which means 

that someone is ―in a bad or difficult situation‖ (―Cambridge Dictionary‖, 

n.d). In the Arabic translation, however, no attention is paid to the 

idiomatic phrase used in the utterance. The footnote, accordingly, does not 

really explicate the entirety of the reference, which makes the loss of the 

aesthetic feature inevitable. As such, even though Al-Asadi maintained the 

historical informative feature of the utterance, he, nonetheless, was not 

loyal to its communicative feature.  

Example 2, on the other hand, is different from Example 1. It is different in 

that it does not allude to a political event, war and/or a name of an official. 

Initially, Example 2 appears to be a normal utterance produced during the 

flow of sentences. Harper Lee, however, proves to us that there is nothing 

arbitrary in the use of such utterance. The utterance ―Nothing to fear but 

fear itself‖ is a direct quotation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt 

(FDR) speech. This sentence, thus, is actually an implicit reference to the 

president FDR, his inauguration speech as well as the year in which he 

made his speech. As stated previously, the 1930s witnessed an economic 

and political turmoil due to the Great Depression as well as the volatile 

political situation between the Blacks and Whites. Thus, this utterance, 

though innocent at the first sight, is actually loaded with connotations.  



45 
 

These connotations each of which are lost in the Arabic translation with no 

use of footnotes. 

Subsequently, this study is to apply RT to the above examples so that it 

could, perhaps,  reach a better rendering or interpretation of them. This is to 

be perceived in Section below. 

4.1.5 Relevance Approach to Political References 

As stated previously in Section 4.1.2, relevance theory would suggest 

possible interpretations of the instances in Table (5) above. However, what 

is more significant than reaching a set of interpretations with varying 

degrees of relevance is: how would a translator / reader access such 

interpretations, how much of an effort is required and is the effect worth 

the effort. 

Table (6) below depicts an attempt to offer possible interpretations of the 

instances in Table (5): 

Table (6): Possible Interpretations of Political References in To Kill a 

Mockingbird 

ST Possible Interpretations in 

Arabic 

Back Translation 

1.If General Jackson 

hadn‘t run the Creeks 

up the creek (1). 

. ٌٛ أْ اٌجٕشاي جبوغْٛ ٌُ ٌطشد 3

))اٌىشٌه((
2

ٌٚجؼٍُٙ ٌٙشثْٛ أػٍى  

 *إٌٙش

. ٌٛ أْ اٌجٕشاي جبوغْٛ ٌُ ٌغجت 2

ِشىٍخ ))ٌٍىشٌه((
2
ثطشدُ٘ ارجبٖ أػٍى  

 إٌٙش

1.If General Jackson hadn‘t 

run the Creeks
2
 up the river of 

the Creek* 

2.If General Jackson hadn‘t 

caused a trouble to the Creeks
2
 

by running them up the creek. 

2.Nothing to fear but 

fear itself (6) 

شًء . ٌٍظ ػٍى عىبٔٙب أْ ٌخبفٛا أي 3

 ػذا اٌخٛف ٔفغٗ *

. ٚوّب لبي اٌشئٍظ سٚصفٍذ، فئٔٗ ٌٍظ 2

ػٍى عىبٔٙب أْ ٌخبفٛا أي شًء ػذا 

 اٌخٛف ٔفغٗ*

1.Its people have nothing to 

fear but fear itself* 

2.As President Roosevelt said, 

Its people have nothing to fear 

but fear itself* 



46 
 

Each of possible interpretations provided above are almost, but not quite, of 

the same degree of relevance. Thus, to use one over the other would not 

make that much of a difference. Such interpretations, nonetheless, still lack 

their relevance to the overall discourse to which they allude. This is 

because a translator who translates to an Arabic audience must not presume 

that an Arabic reader would have the same background in regards to the 

American political history.  

In Example 1, for instance, Interpretation 2 represents a more relevant 

interpretation than Interpretation 1 due to it maintaining the idiomatic 

function by saying: "ٌغجت ِشىٍخ" (back translation: caused a problem). 

However, two issues arise if a translator is to use this interpretation in the 

translation: first, the reader still lacks a cognitive knowledge with regards 

to who General Jackson is, who the Creeks are and what occurred between 

them; two, a reader would never know that "ٌغجت ِشىٍخ" is actually a 

rendering of a ST expression that has been used in the ST to serve two 

functions simultaneously, informative and communicative. Accordingly, 

even though the expenditure of part of the idiomatic effect seems worthy of 

the processing effort it requires, the interpretation, nonetheless, is not as 

faithful as one wishes it to be. By faithful, it is meant for the interpretation 

to be able to convey both the informative and communicative function of 

the utterance with minimal loss.  

 

 



47 
 

In regards to Example 2, as well, Interpretation 2 depicts a larger degree of 

relevance than the first. By adding: "وّب لبي اٌشئٍظ سٚصفٍذ" (back translation: 

as President Roosevelt said), the reader would be able to allocate the 

specific utterance as being said by the American president FDR. Therefore, 

should an Arabic reader have the minimal knowledge of FDR being the 

American president in the 1930s, then the reader would be able to situate 

the utterance and link it to that time period which was characterized with 

economic and political turmoil. However, if the Arabic reader lacks such 

knowledge, then the access to the said interpretation would require more 

analysis and research, an extra effort which RT does not favor.  

What would make a difference, however, is to probably include footnotes 

which illustrate the implicit connotations which connect to the political 

discourse. This explains the adding of an asterisk beside each of the 

possible interpretations. This is to indicate that there is more to the 

utterance than meets the eye, which the reader will be able to perceive 

through a footnote.  

For Example, 1, accordingly, a translator would add to the footnote 

depicted in Table (6) above the following footnote in Table (7) (in the same 

manner, the translator can do the same to Example 2):  

 

 

 



48 
 

Table (7): A Suggested Footnote for Example 1 in Table (7) 

The Footnote in 

Arabic 

ٌٛظٍفزٍٓ: أٚالّ٘ب،  ‖up the creek―* رٛظف اٌىبرجخ اعزخذاِٙب ٌجٍّخ 

اإلشبسح إٌى اٌحذس اٌزبسٌخً ٌٍّؼشوخ اٌغبثك روش٘ب، ٚصبٍّٔٙب، اعزخذاِٙب 

 ، ٚاٌزي ٌؼًٕ اٌٛلٛع فً ِشىٍخ.  ‖idiomatically―ثشىً اصطالحً 

Back Translation *The author employs the phrase ―up the creek‖ in two 

ways: first, to refer to the historical event of the battle; 

second, to idiomatically mean to have some trouble. 

In the previous discussion in the sections of RT, the study attempted an 

approach of highlighting some translation issues that are manifested in the 

Arabic translation of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Subsequently, the 

study used economic and political instances which allude to external and 

bigger discourses outside the novel. Through the provided tables, one could 

notice how Al- Asadi‘s Arabic translation is one that focuses more on the 

semantic meaning; thus detaching the novel of its intended connotations 

and contexts.  

Accordingly, after determining our points of concern in the provided 

instances, Relevance Theory was applied in a hopeful attempt to reach a 

better rendering. Hence, the major tenets of RT, such as context, stimulus, 

processing effort and effect, etc, were used in our analysis. In Section 4.1.1, 

RT was used to suggest interpretations with various degrees of relevance of 

the given instances. The same was conducted in Section 4.1.2, in which the 

same method was applied to political instances.  

Even though this approach to translation geared us closer to more relevant 

interpretations in which the loss of content is minimized, yet some issues 

still appeared. Each of these issues were stipulated in Section 3.4. The first 

issue lead us to the conclusion that: since RT is one that does not depict 



49 
 

exclusivity and is a matter of degree, thus, the accomplishment of 

faithfulness through this theoretical approach is also a matter of degree. In 

other words, RT may help us in the maximization of relevance, yet one 

cannot reach a state of full relevance that is a replica of the author‘s 

intended meaning.  

Look, for instance, at the following figure for more illustration:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure (2): The Relationship Between Relevance and Faithfulness 

As it appears from the previous figure, the higher degree of relevance one 

achieves, the higher degree of faithfulness one reaches. Even though an 

increase of relevance is ultimately an increase of faithfulness, yet, no 

matter how much of a relevance one may reach, s/he would still be unable 

to achieve an ultimate degree of relevance. Consequently, in relevance 

theory, though it may help us to attain a better degree of resemblance of the 

The Degree of Faithfulness 

T
h

e 
D

eg
re

e 
o

f 
R

el
ev

a
n

c
e
 



50 
 

ST intended connotations, yet, sometimes, it would be on the account of 

something else. 

It was further discussed that RT offers us a free approach to interpretation. 

In other words, when necessary, one is allowed to add to an interpretation 

for the purpose of making it more relevant. However, due to the fact that 

there are a lot of connotative instances in the novel, an excessive free use of 

free interpretation may result in the issue of ―over – translation‖. Hence, 

when a translator may reach a higher degree of faithfulness to the intended 

content of the novel, yet, stylistically speaking, the novel may lose its 

aesthetical aspect and the layout of a novel. It would become more of a list 

of information than it is a literary narrative.  

A suggested technique was to use footnotes. Footnotes are seen necessary 

in keeping up a successful communication, which is a fundamental theme 

upon which RT is based. This strategy could be used when it is found out 

that to use an excessive interpretation for the maximization of relevance 

would cause an issue of overtranslation. Thus, a better approach was to use 

a reasonable amount of interpretation accompanied with an informative 

footnote. Such use of footnotes would not transgress on the layout of the 

novel while simultaneously bridging the cognitive gap that may exist 

between the Arabic reader and the novel.  

 

 



51 
 

All in all, ―Is ―relevant‖ faithful?‖ may be answered as follows: 

faithfulness, in light of Relevance Theory, becomes a matter of fluctuating 

relativity. It is, thus, a non – ending route of possibilities. While a relative 

interpretation of an utterance may feature a sufficient degree of 

faithfulness, yet loss is inevitable in the rendering from one language to 

another. This is as mutual knowledge of everything in regards to context, 

background information and the set of assumptions which may circulate in 

the mind of an author is an immeasurably formidable thing to do. Thus, a 

translator operating by RT may only hope to achieve a higher degree of 

relevance than a process of semantic rendering may accomplish.  

4.2 Intertextuality and Faithfulness  

In the previous chapter, faithfulness, in accordance with RT, has come to 

be agreed upon as a matter of degree. There is no such thing as an ultimate 

faithful rendering of a literary excerpt. Some may go as far as to say that 

interpretation can never be faithful. One, hence, may only aspire to achieve 

the highest degree of relevance, and, by default, achieve the highest degree 

of semi - faithfulness. Yet, the concept remains so volatile that it 

strengthens the assumption of faithfulness being a myth. A loss of some 

sort is bound to happen since translation from English to Arabic or vice 

versa is usually ―clogged up by linguistic, rhetorical and cultural barriers 

which engender inevitable losses with very serious consequence‖ (As-Safi, 

2011: 84). Thus, it becomes clear enough that what one seek is not to 

depict an ideal approach to the concept of faithfulness but an adequate one. 



52 
 

This study does not aspire for an impeccable rendering, for to achieve a 

higher degree is more impeccable than one may perceive.  

Hence, in our previous analysis and the analysis that will shortly follow, 

the study mostly deals with instances of allusions and idiomatic references. 

As stated beforehand, each of these references, which were incorporated in 

the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, link to greater external discourses. Thus, 

one may relate a reference to an economic period or incident, to a political 

figure / event / statement, to a religious discourse or even to a feminist 

discourse. A novel, as the one being investigated in this research, is never 

restricted to single predominated discourse. It is never composed of the 

author‘s own words alone; especially when this novel refers to some real 

events and incidents with allegorical characters and incidents. Such 

allegory, hence, appears to be guided throw the temporal and spatial events 

rather than leading the events and controlling their evolvement. This is 

because the issue of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird is characteristic of a 

specific period when other factors contributed in the establishment of such 

a racist community; either political, social or economic. Thus, a novel as 

such is not to be read in isolation of other historical references and texts. 

Bazerman et. al.(2004: 83) best illustrates it when he says:  

Almost every word and phrase we use we have heard or seen before. Our 

originality and craft as writers come from how we put those words together 

in new ways to fit our specific situation, needs, and purposes, but we 

always need to rely on the common stock of language we share with others.  



53 
 

What Bazerman (2004) explicates above is a more simplistic view of what 

scholars view as the issue of Intertextuality. Hence, before one starts an 

investigation of the role of intertextuality in To Kill a Mockingbird, more 

demonstration of some approaches to intertextuality are to be substantiated 

in the subsection below; after which the study shall be able to establish an 

analysis of intertextuality in the translation of the novel and its prospected 

role in attaining a higher degree of faithfulness. 

4.2.1 Intertextuality: An Illustration 

As illustrated by Bazerman et. al. (2004: 83) above, a theory of 

intertextuality eliminates the concept of originality. Hence, in translations, 

one does not deal with original and target text; but s/he deals with source 

and target texts. In other words, any ST is mostly an accumulation of a set 

of references and words that have been previously uttered in another text or 

situation. The implications of such assumption are numerous but not that 

varied. There is a shared assumption which states that: ―we do not read a 

text in isolation but within a matrix of possibilities‖ (Fowler, 2000: 117). In 

other words, when attempting a translation of a literary text, one cannot and 

should not uproot the translated text of its relations to the source text; nor 

uproot the reading of the source text of its links to other texts. According to 

Alawi (2010: 2440), ―Intertextuality … sees a text as a tissue of relations 

between signs that are influenced by space and time‖. This further 

strengthens the idea that a text can never be read / understood / translated in 

isolation of other texts.  



54 
 

Figure (3), below, microscopically illustrates the unlimited ―tissues of 

relations‖ that connect a text to another: 

 

Figure (3): The Tissues of Relations Between Texts 

Each of these small arrows symbolizes (a) link(s) to a text or multiple texts. 

Should one say that language belongs to everyone may, thus, truly indicate 

that any single word one utters is a word that has been previously uttered 

by someone else whose words have been uttered by another and so on. It is 

an interminable pattern of which its beginning is hard to pin point and its 

end hard to speculate.  

To Kill a Mockingbird, thus, is a novel that features such interrelations with 

other previous texts. Such interrelations are not in terms of the common 

usage of simple non - connotative expressions. They are, in their usage, 

implicative of references to other texts and discourses. In other words, ―As 

the allusion travels in the intertextual space, it continues to gain new 



55 
 

qualities‖ (Alawi, 2010: 2444). Accordingly, what has been used in a text 

to imply something, might be used in another text or situation to be 

connotative of something additional or completely different. Therefore, 

when the concept of intertextuality eliminates any possible reference of the 

originality of a term, it sheds the light on the creativity of author / speaker 

in the usage of such term. Subsequently, creativity is judged based on how 

a term is used. This is an idea that was further asserted and illustrated by 

scholars; such as Kristeva who coined the concept of intertextuality in 

1966.Intertextuality is further illustrated by Barthes (1977) who opines that 

a text is perceived as that of a network, "woven entirely with citations, 

references, echoes, cultural languages which cut across it through and 

through in a vast stereophony‖ (as cited in Harris, 1987: 161).  

This chapter, consequently, analyzes various instances of intertextuality 

from To Kill a Mockingbird. Through the analysis, one shall notice various 

manifestations of intertextuality within the ST by which the study shall 

compare it to the Arabic TT. Such manifestations may vary from: ―the 

repeatability  of certain  textual  fragments,  to  citation  in  its  broadest  

sense  to  include  not  only  explicit allusions, references, and quotation 

within a discourse, but also unannounced sources  and influences, clichés, 

phrases in the air and traditions‖ (Adetuyi, 2016: 2) . This is to investigate 

how such instances of intertextuality, which are not limited to overt 

allusions, are either translated, maintained, lost or compensated for. 

Furthermore, this chapter is to discuss how instances of intertextuality may 

be noticed and rendered, what issues may still arise after rendering such 



56 
 

instances and how such issues may be avoided. All of which is to figure out 

whether a definition of faithful rendering, in the shadow of intertextuality, 

can be highlighted.  Do note, however, that such instances of intertextuality 

may as well not only be a reference to written or spoken texts, but to 

general discourses and phenomena. Subsequently, what follows are four 

subsections; which are respectively: a section that deals with the religious 

discourse in the novel, a section that deals with idiomatic discourse in the 

novel, a section that addresses the use of notes and paratexts as prospected 

intertextual strategies, and, a conclusion.  

4.2.2 Religious Discourse in To Kill a Mockingbird 

In this section, one shall contemplate the usage of certain religious 

intertextual manifestations in To Kill a Mockingbird. Such religious 

instances are to be investigated in terms of their reference, their Arabic 

rendering and their intertextual effect. This is to determine whether the 

connotations emanating from such instances are maintained and understood 

by the translator / reader or not. Take, for instance, Table (8) below:  

Table (8): Translations of Religious References in To Kill a 

Mockingbird 

No. ST TT 

1.  You know old Mr. Radley was a foot – 

washing baptist (49) 

وٕذ رؼشفٍٓ أْ اٌغٍذ سادًٌ ِٓ أرجبع اٌىٍٕغخ 

اٌجشٚرغزبٔزٍخ اٌّؼّذأٍخ ِٚٓ ِز٘ت غغً األلذاَ 

(97) 

2.  Let this cup pass from you (100) ( 213أي أٔٗ أساد أْ ٌٕجٛ ِٓ ٘زٖ اٌٛسطخ) 

3.  Let the dead bury the dead … Mr. 

Finch. Let the dead bury the dead. 
(317) 

فٍٍذفٓ اٌّٛرى أٔفغُٙ ... ٌب عٍذ فٍٕزش. فٍٍذفٓ 

 (623اٌّٛرى أٔفغُٙ. )



57 
 

In the above table, the three stipulated examples are biblical references 

with certain variations between each. Example 1, to begin with, is an 

utterance produced by Miss Maudi in her conversation with the protagonist, 

Scout. Their conversation revolves around why Mr. Radley treated his 

family, more specifically Arthur (Boo) Radely, with a heavy hand. In her 

reasoning, Miss Maudi started with the explanation that Mr. Radely was a 

―foot – washing Baptist‖. This term, though at first may appear to be used 

to state a piece of information, is in fact loaded with various intertextual 

connotations aside from the direct semantic meaning.  

In its rendering, however, Al-Asadi made certain issues at many levels. The 

issues rise from the fact that: the term ―foot-washing Baptist‖ does not have 

a direct Arabic equivalent. The use of the term in the ST is for the purpose 

of making a cynical or sarcastic comparison between Mr. Radely‘s 

religious belief and that of Miss Maudi‘s; as well as its interrelation to a 

whole biblical reference that is specific to a certain sect of Baptists and the 

reference to a certain biblical story in the Old Testament.  

Unfortunately, the Arabic rendering is one that attempts to capture the 

intertextual reference to that biblical sect but still does not fully accomplish 

it. What Al-Asadi did is that he used the strategy of explication. Hence, the 

final result is: "َأرجبع اٌىٍٕغخ اٌجشٚرغزبٔزٍخ اٌّؼّذأٍخ ِٚٓ ِز٘ت غغً األلذا ِٓ". This 

translation, which may appear as an instance of over-translation, actually 

strips the English term of its intended connotations. It is true that foot-

washing is a ritual that was conducted by some protestants. The key word 



58 
 

here is ―some‖. Foot-washing was a ritual conducted by some sects which 

were referred to as the ―Primitive Baptists‖, according to a recent article 

(Scheller, 2017). This is the first external discourse to which the term 

refers. 

Another feature of intertextuality in this term is that it refers to a verse in 

the New Testament (Scheller, 2017). This verse is:  

―If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought 

to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you 

should do as I have done to you‖ (John 13: 14 – 15, NIV) 

The Arabic rendering of the term, however, aside from it being an instance 

of over-translation, unintentionally cuts the tissue of relations which links 

the term, hence the novel, to external previous texts and phenomenon. 

Thus, to an Arabic reader who is not well aware of such tissue of relations, 

this biblical reference is bound to be lost in the Arabic translation made by 

Al-Asadi.  

Another aspect of loss which one can deduct from this example is the loss 

of the pejorative tone expressed by Miss Maudi; hence the loss of the tissue 

of relation that links the use of the term to the intention of Miss Maudi‘s 

remarks. What Miss Maudi actually tends to convey is that Mr. Radely was 

so strict that he belonged to the group of foot – washing Baptists; unlike 

her religious beliefs that sway further away from such severity. Hence, the 

Arabic translation actually loses such pejorative tone through the use of 



59 
 

explication. The Arabic reader, therefore, would instead focus on the given 

piece of information by the translator rather than actually attaining the 

exact intertextual and pejorative connotations.  

Example 2, on the other hand, represents a greater issue in its translation. 

This example is an utterance that has been made by Jack Finch to his 

brother Atticus Finch. Their conversation revolves around why Atticus felt 

the need to take up the formidable case of defending a black man. Hence, 

commenting on his brother‘s heroic act, he says: ―Let the cup pass from 

you‖; which is a direct biblical allusion that has been used both 

metaphorically and idiomatically. This utterance is actually an allusion to 

the words of Jesus when he prayed before the Last Supper. In his prayers, 

he says the very same utterance. The cup, hence, symbolizes the suffering 

which Jesus has to undergo in order to achieve salvation and mercy for 

humanity (Barrett, 2014). Moreover, this utterance is not only an allusion 

to the story of Jesus, but it is also a direct quote from the Book of Mathew 

in which this sacrificial act of Jesus is mentioned.  

This intertextual reference, however, has been unjustly rendered into 

Arabic as: "أي أٔٗ أساد أْ ٌٕجٛ ِٓ ٘زٖ اٌٛسطخ"; a rendering that betrays the 

aesthetic use of the biblical allusion and strips the conversation of its 

biblical connotations and metaphors. ―let the cup pass‖ does indeed refer to 

some sort of a trouble or burden. Hence,  "اٌٛسطخ"(back translation: trouble) 

is the only part of the Arabic rendering that conveys bits of its implicative 

meaning.  



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What Al-Asadi did, accordingly, was getting rid of the aesthetical use of 

biblical allusion and the intended connotations. Also, the Arabic translation 

gives the impressions that Atticus did not take this case willingly but he 

was forced into taking it; which is not the intended impression nor the 

growing opinion a reader of the ST gets. A reader of the ST knows that 

there is more to this use of biblical utterance than meets the eye. The use of 

this utterance is in fact to create an analogy between Jesus and Atticus. In 

other words, Jack Finch compares his brother‘s heroic act of defending a 

lost cause as an act of immense sacrificial significance akin to that of the 

Christ‘s. Even though Jesus prays to God to relieve him of this burden, he, 

nonetheless, takes the burden of sacrificing himself willingly. The same 

thing could be said about Atticus; who, unlike what the Arabic translation 

implies, takes up this case willingly.  

This is further attested by comparing the full verse in the Book of Mathew 

with the utterance used in To Kill a Mockingbird in Table (9) below:  

Table (9): The Biblical Allusion of “Let this cup pass from you” 

 The Book Of Mathew To Kill A Mockingbird 

English He went on a little farther and 

bowed with his face to the ground, 

praying, ―My Father! If it is 

possible, let this cup of suffering 

be taken away from me. Yet I 

want your will to be done, not 

mine.‖ (Mathew 26: 39, NLT) 

―…You know, I‘d hoped to get 

through life without a case of this 

kind, but John Taylor pointed at 

me and said, ‗You‘re It‘‖ 

―Let this cup pass from you, 

eh?‖ 

Arabic   ُ ََ  صُ َخش   لٍٍَِاًل  رَمَذ  ِٗ،َٚ  َػٍَى َٚ ِٙ َْ  ْج َوب  ٌَُصًٍِّ َٚ

ْْ  لَبئاًِل: "ٌَب َٓ  أَثَزَبُٖ،إِ َى ِْ  ٌِذيِ  َعىًِّ فَْهخَْعبُزْ  أَ

نِكهْ  اْنَكأُْس،  حُِزٌذُ  َكَما بَمْ  أَوَا أُِرٌذُ  َكَما نٍَْسَ  ََ

 ، اٌؼٙذ اٌجذٌذ(19: 26". )إٔجًٍ ِزى أَْوجَ 

"... أٔذ رؼشف أًٔ وٕذ آًِ أْ أػٍش  -

ٌٍّشافؼخ فً لضٍخ حٍبرً دْٚ االضطشاس 

وٙزٖ، ٌٚىٓ جْٛ ربٌٍٛس أشبس إًٌ ٚلبي: 

 ))أٔذ ٌٙب((.

"أي أوً أراد أن ٌىجُ مه ٌذي انُرطت،  -

 أنٍس كذنك؟"



61 
 

By looking into Table (9) above, one is able to deduce the place of errors in 

the Arabic rendering of Example 2 in To Kill a Mockingbird. The error 

appears on m