CULTURAL SPECIFICITY THROUGH REALIA: AN ANALYSIS OF MARK TWAIN AND O. HENRY’S LITERARY TECHNIQUES
Keywords:
realia, cultural specificity, literary translation, Mark Twain, O. Henry, cultural identity, translation strategies, dialect, narrative techniques, cross-cultural communication.Abstract
This article explores the role of realia in conveying cultural specificity in the literary works of Mark Twain and O. Henry. It examines how culture-bound elements function as carriers of national identity, social context, and artistic expression within their narratives. Through comparative analysis, the study identifies key differences in the authors’ use of realia, highlighting Twain’s emphasis on regional dialects and realism, and O. Henry’s concise, stylistically driven approach. The research also addresses the challenges of translating realia and the importance of preserving cultural meaning in cross-cultural communication. The findings demonstrate that realia are essential in shaping literary authenticity and enhancing the interpretive depth of texts.
Downloads
References
Aixelá, J. F. (1996). Culture-specific items in translation. In R. Álvarez & M. C. Vidal (Eds.), Translation, power, subversion (pp. 52–78). Multilingual Matters.
Baker, M. (2018). In other words: A coursebook on translation (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Bassnett, S. (2014). Translation studies (4th ed.). Routledge.
Gambier, Y., & van Doorslaer, L. (Eds.). (2021). Handbook of translation studies (Vol. 4). John Benjamins.
House, J. (2020). Translation: The basics (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Jakobson, R. (1959). On linguistic aspects of translation. In R. A. Brower (Ed.), On translation (pp. 232–239). Harvard University Press.
Klaudy, K. (2020). Languages in translation. Scholastica.
Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. Prentice Hall.
Nida, E. A. (2001). Language and culture: Contexts in translating. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
O’Hagan, M., & Ashworth, D. (2023). Translation-mediated communication in a digital world: Facing the challenges of globalization. Routledge.
Pedersen, J. (2011). Subtitling norms for television: An exploration focusing on extralinguistic cultural references. John Benjamins.
Toury, G. (2012). Descriptive translation studies and beyond (Rev. ed.). John Benjamins.
Venuti, L. (2018). The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Zhang, Q., & Li, Y. (2024). Cultural realia in literary translation: Challenges and strategies in modern translation studies. Journal of Language and Cultural Studies, 12(2), 45–59.
Kurbanova, D. (2023). The role of realia in expressing national identity in literary texts. International Journal of Linguistics and Translation Studies, 5(1), 23–31.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All content published in the Journal of Applied Science and Social Science (JASSS) is protected by copyright. Authors retain the copyright to their work, and grant JASSS the right to publish the work under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). This license allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author(s) for the original creation.
