Translating Dark Souls from english to arabic : Skopos and proper name domestication in role-playing games

Abstract

In the age of technological progress and innovation, the lines and boundaries separating the arts and the sciences are slowly being blurred. The institutions that pioneer the progress in what can arguably be regarded as the most potent forms of modern technologies known to men, CERN, argues this point quite vehemently. The internet and virtual entertainment surfaced almost out of the ether, greatly altering both our use and our understanding of language. Video Games are a very interesting example of arts and sciences combined, as many of them belonging to the role playing genre use the language of coding to bring artistic writing to life in a simulated reality, filled with very palpable and immersive experiences, that only grow to look more realistic, enticing, and impressive, as time goes by and as our ability to generate more detailed graphics improves. Dark Souls is one of the many popular Intellectual Properties that exploited these elements to form a vast online community which unites people of all ages, across the whole globe. Video games are ultimately bound to reach the members of all societies around the world, and yet, currently, not many of them are translated into Arabic, which limits the amount of players that can enjoy them, consequently damaging their marketing potential, and alienating a large demographic from experiencing the brilliant ideas and concepts that some of them masterfully portray. This thesis treats the subject of translating Dialogues, Menus, and Promotional Trailers, from the English version of Dark Souls into Arabic. Following a brief review of the literature, the methodical comparative techniques of Vinay & Darbelnet, Newmark, and Delisle were used to justify some translation choices, while Vermeers approach in tandem with Venutis Domestication and Foreignization which has a basis in Schleiermachers linguistic philosophy, were all used to tackle the issues of marketing, story immersion, and the dilemma created by the historical differences between Arabic and English in terms of folklore and fantastical terminology. This resulted in the Arabization of many of the games character names, and the conduction of a survey on a potential targeted demographic for marketing purposes and to help solidify some translation choices. The conclusion took into account the inter-disciplinary aspects of Translation as a field, using philosophy, metaphysical historical and quantum theory to present potential future horizons of translation studies beyond video games, movies, articles and books, in the never-ending matrix of technological progress.