Connaissances extralinguistiques et nom propre dans la traduction littéraire du français vers l’arabe. Étude de cas: Le fils du pauvre de Mouloud Feraoun

Abstract

The present study examines the importance of acquiring, by the literary translator, a very rich extralinguistic knowledge in order to correctly transfer the proper nouns of the original text from the source language and culture to the target language and culture. To do this, we analyzed Ibn Al-Fakir (2014) by Egyptian journalist Nesrine Chokri, one of the Arabic translations of Le fils du pauvre (1954), a novel by Algerian writer and novelist Mouloud Feraoun. The study revealed that N. Chokri failed to transfer proper nouns from French to Arabic. The reason is her ignorance of the Algerian Kabyle culture, as well as her lack of knowledge of the characteristics of the source language, French. We have concluded that to translate the novelistic work of M. Feraoun, one must not lose sight of the fact that this work is written in French by a non- native speaker. Hence, its translation poses a challenge for any translator, as he/she needs to be equipped with a solid knowledge of the cultural context of the novel as well as a perfect command of the source language in which it has been written.