Translating dialectal terms and idiomatic expressions embedded in Saudi contemporary fiction is an underresearched topic, and the assessment of translating dialectal terms and expressions has not been examined adequately as there is a scarcity in the studies addressing such a translation issue. Therefore, the current study is mainly interested in assessing how far the translators of the Girls of Riyadh could succeed in translating the embedded dialectal expressions in the novel and whether their translation could transfer the overall effect, aesthetic values, cultural atmosphere, style and pragmatic effect. To achieve this end, the study has classified dialectal elements under the rubric of cultural markers and assessed the rendition of these cultural markers in connection with Dickins’ degrees of cultural transposition and House’s concept of covert translation and its criteria. Following the assessment of samples from the novel, the study has found that the translators neither follow domestication nor foreignization and that they rely heavily on the communicative translation strategy, and in most cases dialectal expressions are omitted or rendered into formal English.

Purpose of the study: The current study aims to assess the translation of dialectal expressions embedded in the Girls of Riyadh and whether the translation could transfer the overall effect, aesthetic values, cultural atmosphere, style, and pragmatic effect. Methodology: The study has used a corpus linguistic approach for collecting random samples of dialectal terms used in Saudi novels and classified dialectal elements under the rubric of cultural markers and assessed the rendition of these cultural markers in connection with Dickins’ degrees of cultural transposition and House’s concept of covert translation and its criteria. Main Findings: Following the assessment of samples from the novel, the study has found that the translators neither follow domestication nor foreignization and they rely heavily on the communicative translation strategy, and in most cases, dialectal expressions are omitted or rendered into formal English. Applications of this study: The current study can be useful in providing a translation approach for translating dialectal terms and expressions in Saudi novels as it draws their attention to the utmost importance of translating dialect in order to maintain the overall effect of the source culture in the target language text. Novelty/Originality of this study: This study is the first of its kind in addressing the issue of translating Saudi dialectal terms and expressions embedded in contemporary Saudi novels where there is a scarcity in the number of studies dealing with the problems of translating Saudi literature into foreign languages.

The present study aims to critically review the aspects of war in selected Iraqi war novels— Sinan Antoon, The Baghdad Eucharist (2017), Corpse Washer (2013) Zauhair Jabouri, The Corpse Hunter (2014)—that focus on depicting vividly the traumatic experiences of Iraqi, particularly after the US-led invasion of Iraq 2003 and how these novels could recur constantly to humanist themes and traumatized figures, the psychological suffering of minorities and the oppressed. In other words, it aims to make visible specific historical instances of trauma in Iraqi war fiction. The present study undertakes an in-depth investigation of the socio-political and historical dimensions of Cathy Caruth’s literary trauma simply because trauma experiences in Iraq were emanated from several causes such as social injustice, the oppression of minorities, political despotism, and the persecution of religious minorities, the displacement of Iraqis from the homeland, and the genocidal policies of jihadist. The study has found that Iraqi war fiction depends on the stylistic technique of repeating certain expressions, phrases, and lexical items to intensify the extraordinary events. It is a narrative of traumatic haunting known for its non-linear and circular style that often leads to ambiguity where readers are often unable to decode the authorial intentions, deriving its ambiguity from the traits of dreams and nightmares, the interpretations of which are continually and unredeemably haunted by the memory of loss.