Bridging Narratology and Stylistics: Focalization Through Foregrounding in the Arabic Translation of The Book Thief
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is renowned for its thematic engagement with the power of words. It is stylistically marked by a narrative form in which the narrator, Death, frequently merges with the characters’ perspectives, providing an ideal framework for investigating focalization in translation. This blending produces a complex form of focalization that necessitates a combined narratological and stylistic analysis to evaluate its textual survival across languages. Drawing on Genette’s (1980) differentiation between “who speaks” and “who sees,” this study conceptualizes focalization as a form of narrative coloring. Grounded in Leech and Short’s (2007) stylistic framework, this study focuses specifically on Rimmon-Kenan’s (2002) facets of focalization, psychological and ideological dimensions, proposing that these are most clearly realized through foregrounding. Adopting a comparative close-reading approach, the study examines how these stylistic features serve as diagnostic cues for inferring focalization and evaluates their rendering in the Arabic translation, where translation emerges not as a neutral transfer of content, but as a reconfiguration of this stylistic and interpretive coloring. The analysis draws on four selected samples, characterized by richness of foregrounding. The findings demonstrate that the neutralization of micro-level stylistic foregrounding shifts the narrative perspective from a consciousness-based perspective to a more detached, rational voice. Furthermore, since these markers rely on the cohesion of foregrounding, changing even a single deviation reshapes the psychological and ideological facets.
Authors: Marwah R. Hashim, Salem Y. Fathi
Institution: University of Mosul
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225649418