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These important facts motivate MA Wiriya Inphen’s study. In the past years, Inphen has attempted to find out social and cultural elements that affect the decisions of translators and editors on choosing translation strategies in literary translations. The study focuses on translations of cultural markers – words and phrases, that have different tangible and intangible cultural values. Such differences give challenges to translators to overcome through translation strategies. 

His discovery contributes new knowledge about translation strategies that are affected by norms to the Thai literary environment. He finds that contemporary Thai readership is regarded by translators and editors as being young and educated. However, such a readership alone does not seem to encourage translators and editors to use translation strategies that aim to introduce unfamiliar foreign languages, such as place and human names and other religious items in their translations.

Instead, social and cultural elements, like a trend in retaining unfamiliar foreign items of cultures other than the Thai one and target readers’ comprehension, mostly encourage the employment of translation strategies that aim to retain foreign languages (i.e. place and human names including items that belong to Catholicism and other belief systems).

Even though the trend of producing translations containing unfamiliar foreign languages is emerging, it does not override the norms about kingship and Buddhism. Inphen further finds that English words and phrases with characteristics that denote royals and Catholicism are usually immediately replaced with Thai versions that show royal and Buddhist characteristics. This showcases a norm about kingship and Buddhist ideologies that strongly affected the decisions of translators and editors to use translation strategies that sound very familiar to Thai readers immediately despite the emerging trend of translation strategies with foreign items. 

Wiriya Inphen’s public defense titled ‘Translation strategies for cultural markers in Dan Brown’s novels translated in Thai’ will be examined in building Agora, auditorium 2, on Friday, 23 February 2024 at 12 o’clock. Opponent is Senior Lecturer Minna Ruokonen (University of Eastern Finland) and custos is Senior Lecturer Jenni Virtaluoto (Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥). The language of the dissertation is English. The public defense will be held in English.

Link to the publication:

Link for streaming is: 

Bio

Wiriya Inphen received his LL.B. from Thammasat University, Thailand in 2005 and later his M.A. (English-Thai Translation) from the same university in 2009. 

He is pursuing his doctoral degree at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. His research interest is literary translation in the Thai literary environment. His doctoral dissertation was funded by paid educational leave from Mae Fah Luang University in Thailand (2014-2016) and, later, the Department of Language and Communication Studies, Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, Finland (dissertation grant, October 2021 to 30 April 2022).

Further information: 

Wiriya Inphen, wiriya.w.inphen@student.jyu.fi