Translators’ Censorship in English-Indonesian Translation of Donald Duck Comics

Abstract

Not all aspects of Western culture, reflected in the language used in Walt Disney's Donald Duck comics, are acceptable in Indonesia. So, in translating the comics, the translators have to manipulate the text for it to be acceptable by the target readers and parents. This research aims at finding out censorship through the translation techniques used by the translators in translating the English humorous texts in the Walt Disney's Donald Duck comics into Indonesian and the reasons underlying the translators' choice of the translation techniques. It also aims at analysing whether or not the choice of the translation techniques affects the rendering of meaning, maintenance of humour, and acceptability of the translation. For these purposes a qualitative method was employed with content analysis technique and reader response analysis. Content analysis was used in comparing the source text (ST) and target text (TT) to find out the translation techniques used as a means of censorship and to find out the translators' reasons for choosing the techniques. Reader-response analysis was done to find out the readers' response to the rendering of meaning and maintenance of humour in the translation. The research findings discovered that the translators performed censorship through the dominant use of reduction and generalisation techniques so as to reduce sarcasm and insults. The interview with the publisher's Senior Editor also revealed that "decency" was the first priority in the translation decision making, followed by clarity of meaning and maintenance of humour. Further research to investigate other elements censored, and compared with other translated comics is recommended.

Exploring undergraduate students’ experiences in dealing with post-editing of machine translation

“…literary texts, according to Vieira and Alonso (2020), could not be translated by using machine translations since literary texts needed a high level of sensitivity in translating them. A similar example was given by Yuliasri (2017) in the translation of comics from English into Indonesian through reducing inappropriate words, i.e. sarcasm, and carefully selecting appropriate terminologies acceptable for children and teenagers as the biggest segment of readers in Indonesia.…”

Uniqueness in Translating Arabic Hagiography of Shaikh ‘Abd Al-Qādir Al-Jailānī: The Case of an-Nūr Al-Burhānī

“…The study of translation as a product has been carried out by many researchers in various types of text and fields, such as medicine (Silalahi, 2009), literary (Siregar, 2015), Holly Koran (Anshori, 2016), censorship (Yuliasri, 2017), translation training (Karnedi, 2015), Javanese translation from Bidāyah al-hidāyah written by al-Ghazāli (Anis & Saddhono, 2016), and use of Arabic-Javanese books in Islamic education (Munip, 2016). In fact, alJailānī's hagiography has been studied from a political perspective (Saerozi, 2007;Sahri, 2011) instead of its translation; hence, this study is focused on describing the technique, method, and ideology of translation adopted by the translator.…”

Humour Loss in the Indonesian Translation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

“…In the Indonesian context, our research revealed that the big publishers -including the publisher of HPSSdevelop guidelines for translators to ensure that cultural norms are adhered to and taboos are not violated. Yuliasri's study of the Indonesian translation of Donald Duck comics also reveals how the translators were expected to manipulate the text in order for it to be acceptable to readers and parents (Yuliasri, 2017).…”