'Foreignising' or 'domesticating' the ideology of parental control in translating stories for children: Insights from contrastive discourse analysis

Translating for children is increasingly being recognized as a challenge worthy of as much attention as translating for adults. One of the key issues debated in this domain is the choice between ‘foreignizing’ and ‘domesticating’ strategies in relation to the pedagogic or, more generally, ideology forming or ideology-reflecting potential of children’s literature. The aim of this article is to discuss and illustrate to what extent the contrastive discourse analysis of adaptations of the same basic story available in the target and source cultures/languages may help translators (training or practising) gain an insight into: (i) different views of the relationship parent/carer–child (with particular reference to parental control) and (ii) the expressive choices that underlie such views, and thereby provide translators with the means to adopt coherent translation strategies suited to their briefs and/or individual preferences.