Translating Racial Discourse in To Kill a Mockingbird: A Comparative Analysis of Arabic Translation

Abstract

This study examines how racially charged language in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) has been translated into Arabic, focusing on the ethical, cultural, and pedagogical implications of translation strategies. Using Skopos Theory, Venuti's domestication/foreignization model, and Spivak's postcolonial ethics, the research analyses the rendering of terms such as the racial slur (“N­word”), "boy," "white trash," and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) across multiple Arabic translations. A comparative study, integrating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with cross­linguistic comparison against the French, Spanish, and German translations, detects a consistent pattern of defensive domestication among Arabic translations, including euphemization, omission, and lexical substitution. Though culture­sensitive, the strategies tend to downplay the novel's critique of institutional racism and can efface its historical context. Western translations, however, typically retain racially marked words with Para textual glossing for critical reception. The study highlights the translator as a cultural mediator whose decisions are dictated by socio­political norms, institutionally imposed, and audience requirements. It recommends adopting ethical domestication or critical foreignization, facilitated by annotated bilingual editions, pedagogy underpinned by culture, and open translator commentary. These approaches strive to uphold historical faithfulness, foster intercultural understanding, and develop critical literacy. In this way, the research contributes to debates in translation ethics, postcolonial studies of translation, and language pedagogy, and argues for translation as a linguistic and ethical practice.