One story, two cultures: Readership responses to the cross-cultural translation of Jane the Virgin and El-Anisa Farah

Abstract

This study examines readers’ reception to the cross-cultural adaptation of Jane the Virgin and its Egyptian adapted version, El Anisa Farah, assigning such a cultural translation experience to viewers' perception, moral judgment, and enjoyment. The study explored readers’ responses by 500 Egyptian and Arab respondents to a questionnaire that measures data about primary demographics including six areas: cultural understanding and relevance; perceived quality of adaptation; social and moral appropriateness; representation of gender and relationships; cultural setting and contextual impact; audience evaluation and satisfaction. The findings demonstrated a comprehensive positive audience attitude towards the domesticated Egyptian version, specifically regarding how the moral and religious elements were addressed as well as the indication of cultural adaptation that led to a better cultural appropriateness. In terms of differences, they primarily appeared in how gender roles in the remake were perceived by female members of the audience, in particular. In other words, female viewers expressed unfavorable opinions on how women and the relationships they are involved in were portrayed. At the same time, younger viewers and frequent consumers of foreign or domesticated audiovisual content showed higher satisfaction and cultural understanding. The results of this study emphasize the importance of maintaining a balance in the context of interlingually translated audiovisual content; a balance that asserts that this form of translation functions as a mediator between cultures as it maintains faithfulness to the source culture while respecting the target moral concerns. The study finishes with significant suggestions that can benefit audiovisual translators, producers of audiovisual content, and acting agents in the context of audiovisual content production, distribution, and exhibition. These suggestions propose a collaboration among all the involved agents to integrate a cultural dialogue that takes into account issues relating to cultural portrayals of gender roles as well as to research based on viewers’ experiences to achieve cultural credibility and relevance in the target societies.