Expelliarmus Versus Dëbimus: Harry Potter’s Magical World in Albanian Language

Abstract

The Harry Potter saga, written by the British writer J.K. Rowling, has gained significant attention worldwide, thus being translated into more than 64 languages, including Albanian, and selling more than 450 million copies. The saga combines a variety of genres, fantasy being the predominant one. The magical elements in the fantasy genre are portrayed with a delicate choice of words on the part of the writer, encompassing neologisms, Latinisms and French-rooted words which name the objects, events, and behaviors of the imaginary world, to mention a few. The present paper aims to investigate how these features are rendered into Albanian so that the effect of the source text is preserved in the target text. The first three Harry Potter novels will constitute the corpus of our study. Such an investigation will be possible through conducting a comparative analysis illustrated with examples which will be theoretically based on the translation procedures and strategies offered by scholars in the discipline of translation studies. Two approaches will be utilized as far as the analysis is concerned, following Axiela’s division of culture-specific items into two groups – common expressions and proper nouns. Finally, conclusions will be drawn regarding the transfer of a similar effect of the magic-related terms from the source text to the target text.