Literary translation is the result of the interaction of culture, ideology and translation. It is also considered to be one of the most interesting challenges within a specific literary system due to its special nature and the variation in the cultural environment between source and
target. Researching such challenges entails investigating the different factors that govern the translation process and product alongside its reception by a specific readership.
This thesis is located within the framework of translation studies suggested by Holmes (1988) and developed by Toury (1995), as partly descriptive and partly process-reception
oriented. It employs empirical interviews to investigate and describe the different economic, political, cultural and ideological factors that govern the translation process and product in Syria. Such a description provides the background for the assessment of the responses of groups of target readers to a specific text.
In this research, D. H. Lawrence's The Virgin and the Gipsy and two Arabic translations are used as a sample analysis of the translation procedures adopted to tackle culturespecific references. The manual analysis in Chapter 5 of the cultural references in The Virgin and the Gipsy leads to the conclusion that translation procedures adopted in the published translations are unsystematic and that the two translators may not be fully aware of the effects of the chosen procedures on their target readers.
The empirical methods are twofold. Interviews were carried out with Syrian publishers to explore the Syrian publishing conditions. The results yield a description of the sociocultural context of translation in Syria. Within that context, the responses of particular groups of target readers (English Literature graduates) to certain translation procedures are examined and then used to investigate the acceptability of the procedures used mainly
endnotes and interpolations based on the students' responses to them. Four questionnaires were conducted with forty Syrian students. The results show that endnotes and
interpolations are acceptable translation procedures in translating certain culture-specific references, depending on the needs of target readers and the importance of the cultural reference in understanding the text.
This research demonstrates the potential of using reader-response theory and methods in analysing translation procedures that are adopted to deal with culture-specific references The results suggest that extensions and modifications of empirical models are necessary to
gauge target readers' responses and to show how such enquiries can be used in translation studies.