Subversion through Self-translation

This study aims to investigate if self-translation is a true interpretation of a Source Text (ST) into a Target Text (TT), or if it is in fact a rewriting process. The study examines Haikal's self-translation of a book titled 'Autumn of Fury: The Assassination of Sadat'. This self-translation is used as an example due to the modifications and changes made by Haikal, and examines to what extent the translator is faithful to his ST (English version). For the purpose of this study, fifteen examples have been selected from Haikal's version of Autumn of Fury. They are then analysed and compared to their Arabic translations (TT), and the differences are highlighted and discussed. The selected examples include words, phrases, sentences, and sometimes whole paragraphs. The study relies on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a theoretical framework to uncover the hidden ideologies and attitudes behind the modification, manipulation, or rewriting of the ST into Arabic. These examples are analysed from linguistic, political and ideological perspectives. The study finds that Haikal's self-translation of Autumn of Fury into Arabic was actually a rewriting process rather than a translation process, and that a new book is almost recreated out of the original.

2014

The whole notion of a hybrid text, the issues of exile and immigration, crossing of boundaries—interest me for obvious existential and political reasons. There are certain figures who are most important to me, renegade figures, who transform marginality into a kind of passionate attachment to other peoples [...] who were able to go from one side to the other, and then come back. (Said, Power, Politics and Culture, p. 148) A hybrid text is a text that results from a translation process. [...] Although the text is not yet fully established in the target culture (because it does not conform to established norms and conventions), a hybrid text is accepted in its target culture because it fulfils its intended purpose in the communicative situation (at least for a certain time). (Schaffner, Translation as Intercultural Communication, p. 325). In the above two quotations, Edward Said and Charles Schaffner consider a translated test as a regenerating hybrid force of liberation, openness and...

JoLLA: Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

It is clear that the notion of "shift" plays a primordial role in leading the translator to predetermined targets, which explains why the majority of translated texts from the same sources are largely similar. In this article, we try to explore the different possibilities of choice between competing translations at the different levels of English and Arabic linguistic systems. We also attempt to highlight the important notion of 'shift' in translation by showing the different mechanisms that operate in the process of translating English into Arabic in our endeavor to keep meaning as close as possible in both languages. The term "equivalence" is elucidated to underscore its different manifestations at the textual level. In this respect, a brief look at the article "Asymmetric struggle for the hearts and mind of viewers: Can the media actually trigger sympathy towards terrorists?", written by the Israeli journalist Ifat Maoz, gives the reader an idea about how translation is determined by the notion of shift and about the possibilities, if any, the translator may have recourse to for stylistic reasons. We found that a register analysis must be incorporated into the general conceptualization of the flow from the original text to the translated text in order to produce an acceptable translation. We also found that the only shift in translation that provides translators freedom is intra-systemic shift, a subset of class shift, addition shift, omission shift, and meaning shift. Finally, we discovered that expressive meaning is the most influential factor in translation as it may drive translators to depart from the source text to match the context of the target text in order to create a product that is reader-friendly.

Traduction et Langues , 2016

The current research paper aims at shedding light on self-translation within the Arabic contemporary context, hence delving into a valuable research on the subject which is still not often tackled. This paper provides insight into the self-translation practice of Arab authors who have resorted to such atypical activity. The Algerian context will be given particular importance in order to define the circumstances and reasons that motivated some contemporary Algerian authors to translate their own writings and to embark on this highly challenging endeavor. Thus, our study will put the spotlight on the definition of the concept of self-translation, a brief overview of Arabic literature devoted to it, plus a typology of self-translation and the motives that invigorated this practice. We will then try-through the examination of some Arab self-translation experiences-to identify the characteristics of this practice within the Arab context, and thereby understand the points of divergence that distinguish the Algerian experience from that of other Arab authors, as well as the points of convergence on which these different practices come together.

Technium Social Sciences Journal

In this cosmopolitan era where the distance between different ethnicities and races has collapsed, we find a new form of literature which employs code-switching, examples being diaspora literature. An important notion to consider with regards to bilingual literature is to see what effect it has on the readers because, in this context, the readers become the translators. By leaning on linguistic and sociolinguistic theories about codeswitching as well new findings in translation studies, this study intends to investigate what is lost and found during reading texts like Meatless Days by Sara Suleri and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie when the readers become the translators. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and a thematic analysis was carried out on the qualitative data which found that readers translated code-switching along themes of legitimacy, identity and resistance to western knowledge. It was determined that when readers become translators, they have an unpreceden...

transLogos Translation Studies Journal, 2019

The aim of this article is to examine an edition of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's Nutuk (The great speech) from the perspective of translation studies. The research subject is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk'ün Anlatımıyla Çocuklar için Nutuk (The great speech for children with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's narration), intralingually translated by Hakan Atalay (2018). This edition has been selected for examination among many others, because on the copyright page of the edition Atalay has been presented as the 'author' of the book and children as its target reader on the cover. In the present article, both claims will be questioned from the perspective of translation studies with an interdisciplinary approach where the narratological framework will be used in the analysis of the book which I consider not only as an example of intralingual translation but also a translation between genres. For this purpose, the present article will take O'Sullivan's (2003) article as its reference point in which the scholar elaborates the narrative diagram put forward by Chatman (1978) by adding a translational dimension to it. Based on the analysis, the article will conclude with some questions about manipulation in translation with the hope that they will lead the way to new discussions in translation studies.

Building Bridges, 2009

"Discusses some of the considerations involved in choosing, producing, and editing translations of Arabic essays into English. Prominent among these are the following issues: the sort of Arabic literature currently being chosen for translation, the place of the translation of essays in such a schema, how the choice of titles for translated works reveals or conceals content, source language author interventions in the production of the final target language text, and the role of the editor and publisher. Demonstrates how the the source language author can actually undermine his own purpose by concealing parts of his argument, which are available to source language readers, by excising relevant parts of the target language text during the editing stage."

REVUE FIKRE WA LOUGHA, UNIVERSITÉ DE MOSTAGANEM, 2013

This paper examines the fallacy of the distinction between translator and