The Influence of Ideology on Translation: A Study of The Russia-Ukraine War

Abstract

Ideology plays a huge role in translation, and it does affect the end product. The study shows that the influence of translation is influenced by the translator's ideology, the institution's ideology, or even the government's ideology. The study aims to investigate the influence of ideology on the translated text and the nature of ideology's function in translation, particularly during wartime. The study focuses on manipulated texts, headlines, and strategies used by translators as they change or rewrite the product of translation to reflect specific beliefs and viewpoints. The study is restricted to texts about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine; the source texts are in English, and the translations are in Arabic. The researcher applies Lefevere's model (1992) by comparing the source texts with their translations. Additionally, the analysis of the translations in the study makes use of critical discourse analysis following Fairclough's (1995) model. The strategies that were used by the translators to manipulate the texts were omission, addition, and lexicalization. The translators interfere in the ST by changing the intent of the original author without maintaining equivalence. The translations of the examples, taken from the RT Arabic Website, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)website, and Al Emarat Alyoum website, reflect points of view about the Russia-Ukraine war in the countries where they are produced; these websites adopted the official government's statements and the position these governments take from the Russia-Ukraine war. As a result, translation can be used and seen as a political tool to accomplish certain objectives. It is advised to conduct more research to look into additional factors influencing translation as well as the authors' intentions.