Linking critical discourse analysis with translation studies

Abstract

This paper argues for closer interdisciplinarity between critical discourse analysis (CDA) and translation studies (TS). There has been very little CDA investigating discursive representations by news organisations across linguistic, political and cultural boundaries. Similarly researchers in TS have pointed out that the sensitive role news translation plays in discursive phenomena such as globalisation and political discourse remains largely underestimated. To address this gap, three methodological models are proposed for linking the dialectical-relational approach to CDA (Fairclough 1992, 1995, 2003) with text-based approaches in TS. A mini-case study will illustrate such links by analysing talks by Saudi women translated by BBC News into Standard Arabic and English. Findings reveal substantial transformations which cannot be dismissed as inevitable constraints of the news genre or translation, but are more likely to reflect prevailing narratives of Muslim women being ‘submissive’ and ‘oppressed’.