Orientalization of Nature in The German Translation of Mochtar Lubis’s Harimau-Harimau

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201215.085How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Harimau-harimau, Mochtar lubis, orientalization, postcolonial approach, West and East

Abstract

Western perspectives about the East, formalized in the form of Orientalism in the colonial period, still dominate the discourse regarding the economy, politics, culture, and nature, even now in the postcolonial era. This study explores the influence of an orientalist perspective on the German translation of an Indonesian literary work, a novel by Mochtar Lubis, Harimau – Harimau (1975). The book describes the survival of resin collectors in the Sumatran jungle who fought against a tiger attack. The strength of this novel lies in the depiction of nature, humans, and the relationship between the two. This study uses a translational approach, which compares the syntactic and semantic structures of the Source Text (ST) and the Target Text (TT). Theories of Orientalism and the postcolonial approach are tools to examine to which extent Western views influence the German translation of the novel. The results of the analysis show that there is a tendency towards an orientalization of natural images. The translator, as the Western representation, changes the depiction of nature according to Western perception about the East and tropical countries. Another finding shows a shift in the description of the relationship between humans and the environment. Based on the results, a concept of equality-based translation should be the consideration for every translator.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Prasuri Kuswarini
AU  - Masdiana
AU  - Irma Nurul Husnal Chotimah
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/12/17
TI  - Orientalization of Nature in The German Translation of Mochtar Lubis’s Harimau-Harimau
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (ICOLLITE 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 549
EP  - 554
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201215.085
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201215.085
ID  - Kuswarini2020
ER  -