Cultural Translation Strategies in Translating Word-Plays in A Series Of Unfortunate Events: Slippery Slope

Abstract

Word-play is one of the biggest challenges in cultural translation due to differences of cultural references from Source Text (ST) to Target Text (TT). The researchers observe this phenomenon by comparing the original and translated work of The Slippery Slope, a book of A Series of Unfortunate Events. This study applies cultural translation approach and is qualitative in nature. There are four strategies employed namely Literal Strategy, Adaptation Strategy, Faithful Strategy, and Communicative Strategy. Those strategies reveal failures of cultural translation from the lack of context and cultural references in the translation product, Lereng Licin. The four strategies employed in the TT do not focus on delivering the cultural references within the ST, making the word-plays losing the same impact in the translated work. This research offers a source or reference for other researchers interested in cultural translation strategies of works with word-plays.