Rendering Lebanese Political Caricatures from Arabic into English: Challenges, Strategies, and Contextual Awareness
Abstract:
This study examines the challenges and strategies used by thirteen third-year translation students at the Islamic University of Lebanon when translating seven of Stavro Jabra’s Lebanese political caricatures from Arabic into English. Employing a qualitative design, the research integrates Vinay and Darbelnet’s model of translation strategies, Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) framework, and pragmatic analysis. Data were collected through translation tasks and follow-up interviews with four participants. Findings reveal that literal translation and borrowing were the most frequently employed strategies across all caricatures, accounting for approximately 55% of total usage. However, this overreliance often reduced the humorous and cultural depth of the target text. Less frequent strategies included equivalence, adaptation, modulation, omission, and transposition, which students applied inconsistently. The analysis of tone showed that students tended to adopt formal registers even when casual or satirical tones were required. Grammatical and punctuation errors—such as omission of ellipses or misuse of question marks—further weakened the intended humorous effect. Pragmatic analysis indicated that while all students successfully conveyed political implications and personal deixis, they struggled to reproduce contextual humor and culturally bound expressions. The study concludes that translating political caricatures demands linguistic proficiency, cultural awareness, and strategic flexibility. It recommends specialized translation training that emphasizes humor, political discourse, and cross-cultural interpretation to enhance translators’ competence in rendering political caricatures effectively.
