WRITING THROUGH TRANSLATION A THESIS IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING (ENGLISH/ARABIC/ENGLISH) By ILHAM A. M. ALGHADIRI Presented to the faculty of the American University of Sharjah College of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS Sharjah, United Arab Emirates May 2012 © 2012 Ilham AlGhadiri. All rights reserved. Acknowledgements First, last and always, my praise and thanks to Almighty Allah for granting me the ability to complete my higher studies and this thesis. My utmost gratitude to professor Said Faiq, my supervisor and committee chair, whose sincerity and encouragement I will never forget; his patient and unfailing support as his guidance through this thesis. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude and special thanks to professor Basil Hatim, for a unique learning experience I had sitting in five courses of his; I will always have his words and insights carved into my mind; I am fortunate to be one of his students. My special thanks and appreciations to Dr. Ahmed Ali, for being such a great instructor; always there to help and explain. To Dr. Sattar Izwaini, for the tremendous encouragements, and valued friendship. To Dr. Ibrahim Sadek, director of the CAS graduate programs, for accommodating our numerous queries and for his guidance to overcome the challenges of studying while on a full time job. To Dr Nawar Golley, to whom I owe the opportunity to join the MATI program in the first place. Without her encouragement and follow up I would not have done this at this stage of my life. I am very grateful to each one of my AUS professors for the knowledge they have empowered me with. In addition, I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to all my colleagues at work, friends and their loving mothers wherever they are, who never stopped praying for me and encouraging to accomplish the courses and this work. My especial thanks and appreciation go out to my class-mates in the MATI program whose generous sharing and moral support have left me with irreplaceable memories; to Nouf, Shaza and Hayyan for being so special when it comes to this journey. Finally my most sincere gratitude for what I have achieved so far, go to my parents and to my dear and only brother who continued their mission iv Dedication To my mother, father, and dear brother Nizar To Nadhum, Hakam and Ghada Abstract Each culture can represent any other culture. Translation, in this sense becomes a cultural representation of an original. Translation and cultural representation in the West are often seen through the lenses of Orientalism; an ideology suggested by the late Edward Said in 1978, as the dominant approach in the West to the cultural representation of the East and ever since influenced the post-colonial studies. However, little attention is accorded into the orientalist cultural representation inherent in the writings of Arab authors who represent (translate) their own native culture in the language of the former colonizer. In this thesis, Amin Maalouf’s historical novel Samarcande, originally written in French and translated into English and Arabic, is examined, and the cultural representation of the medieval Muslims and history through the life of the controversial poet Omar Al Khaiyam are analyzed to identify whether it is resistant or not to the Western master discourse of Orientalism (Faiq, 2004). The author, his works and background, the novel influence and structure were highlighted and a considerable number of selected text samples on the socio- political, historical, and Omar AlKhaiyyam’s philosophy depictions were investigated for language, poetics, ideology, and universe of discourse as parts of the methodology adopted in this thesis. The sample translations into Arabic were dealt with in terms of language and poetics. It was concluded that, the novel is another orientalist representation of the Muslim culture that seems to conform to the French literary norms and adopts foreignization as a dominant approach emphasizing exoticism. The source and its translations represent instances of writing through translation. Search Terms: Amin Maalouf, Orientalism, exoticism, foreignaization, stereotypes, cultural studies, cultural representation, translation vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………... iv Abstract………………………………………………………………………………... vi 1. Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………… 1 2. Chapter Two: Translation and Cultural Studies 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………. 7 2.2 General Review of Translation Studies………………………………….….. 8 2.3 Formation of Cultural Identity Through Translation ………………….......... 16 2.4 Pseudotranslation………………..................................................................... 17 2.5 Literary Translation …………………………………………………............. 18 2.6 Foreignization and Domestication, Lawrence Venuti (1995)……..………… 20 2.7 Postcolonial Studies and Orientalism………………………………………... 21 2.8 Review of Arabic Literature Through Translation ……………………….…. 24 2.9 Conclusion…………………………………………………………...………. 28 3. Chapter Three: Data and Methodology 3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………….. 29 3.2 Data…………………………………………………………………………. 30 3.2.1 The author, Amin Maalouf……………………………………….….. 30 3.2.2 The novel, Samarcande………………………………………….…... 31 3.2.3 The topic, Rubaiyat of Omar Al Khaiyyam………………….............. 32 3.3 Methodology …………………………………………………………….….. 34 3.3.1 Language………………………………………………………….….. 35 3.3.2 Ideology…………………………………………………………….... 36 3.3.3 Universe of Discourse………………………………………………... 37 4. Chapter Four: Analysis and Discussion 4.1 Introduction….………………………………………………………………. 38 4.2 Title and Cover Page of Samarcande…………………………………...…… 38 4.3 Structure and Chapter Titles…………………………………………..…...… 40 4.4 Author’s Introduction…………………………………………………..……. 42 4.5 Socio-political Examples…………………………………………………….. 44 4.6 Historical Examples………………………………………………...……….. 59 4.7 The Image of Omar Al Khayyam……………………………………………. 64 4.8 Linking History from 11th to 19 Centuries………………………………….. 70 4.9 Discussion…………………………………………………………………… 80 5. Chapter Five: Conclusion…………………………….…………………………… 92 References……………………………...……………………………………………… 96 Vita…………………………………………………………………………………...... 102 Chapter One: Introduction While Orientalism and western colonial discourses on the Orient played a vital role in perceiving the Muslim and Arab culture and their literary heritage (notably in the nineteenth century French and English languages), most translations focused on its exoticism (Said, 1978, p. 2, 4). Few others who represented Orientalism as an academic discipline, the late English Orientalist Reynold A. Nicholson (1868 – 1945), for example writes in his book, The Literary History of the Arabs, on Al Hariri’s defence of his Maqamat, a unique literary genre often seen as immoral, that the hero is a ‘witty, unscrupulous vagabond’ (Nicholson, 1993, p. 328), who travels from one place to another: Hariri insists that the assemblies have a moral purpose. The ignorant and malicious, he says, will probably condemn his work, but the intelligent reader will perceive, if they lay prejudice aside that it is as useful as the fables of beasts to which no one has ever rejected. (Nicholson, 1993, p. 330) Nicholson, who never travelled to the Arab or Muslim world is viewed as a leading scholar on Islamic literature and mysticism (Sufism), and one of the greatest Jalaluddin Rumi scholars and translators in English the language (“The life of Rumi: Jalaluddin Rumi”, 2009). Nicholson became a Sir Thomas Adams professor of Arabic from 1926–to 1933 at Cambridge University (“Reynold Alleyne Nicholson”, 2012). Throughout history, European scholars, authors, travellers and translators have demonstrated a motivated attitude towards familiar and unique literary genres belonging to the Muslim and Arab literary heritage. These genres became more appealing after translations were well established in western languages. Another English Orientalist, Thomas Hyde (1636-1703) is known for writing the first comprehensive history of the religion in ancient Iran, published in 1700. In this work, he attempts to correct errors of the Greek and Roman historians who had described the religion of the ancient Persians by using contemporary travel accounts in addition to Latin, Greek, and Islamic sources (“Thomas Hyde”, 2011). The appeal of the Orient has differently motivated the works of some other western artists and travellers who ended up rewriting the Oriental literature and constructing the identity of a culture with a considerable enthusiasm through translation. 1 A very good example is the influential translation of the Rubbaiyyat of Omar Al Khaiyyam into English by the Victorian poet Edward FitzGerald in 1859. His translation marked the nineteenth century English speaking world, dominated the western perception of Muslim Persia and the Muslim world in the eleventh century, created a great deal of controversy around Omar Al Khaiyyam and his philosophy, and established his image as sensual poet and wine lover (Edward FitzGerald Exhibition, personal notes, August 9, 2009). As exhibited by the British Library in 2009, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the English translation, the Rubaiyat is one of the best known poems in the world which has been translated into 85 languages since its publication in 1859. The verse continues to inspire artists and authors today rather than literal translation, FitzGerald’s version reflects his own interests, depicts a day in the life of a poet and reflects the uncertainties