Translating and Re-narrating Short Story Moral: Mediating Public and Meta Narratives

Objectives: This study explores the role of translation in mediating the morals of short stories by examining the differences in how messages are communicated through meta and publicly elaborated narratives. Methods: The study employs a contrastive content analysis method to compare the impact of public and meta-narratives on the reception of short stories by Jordanian elementary school students. These short stories aim to either reinforce existing values or introduce new ones. Results: The study shows that public narratives are effective in reinforcing pre-existing values, while meta-narratives are effective in introducing new values when translation is used as a mediating tool. The study also emphasizes the significance of the narrative dimension of meaning, as no statistically significant differences were found between fourth and seventh genders. The differences were limited to meta and public narration. Conclusions: The study concludes that the translators must employ different strategies when reinforcing, challenging, or introducing a new interpretation based on their understanding of the target language's context and culture. For example, the importance of recycling might serve as a reminder in one society and as a novel concept in another.