Drama Translation As Social Practice: the Case of George Bernard
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Drama Translation as Social Practice: The Case of George Bernard Shaw’s Dramatic Work in Arabic Duaa Adnan Sairafi Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Languages, Cultures and Societies Department of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies May 2019 i The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement The right of Duaa Adnan Sairafi to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. @ 2019 The University of Leeds and Duaa Adnan Sairafi. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis was made possible by the help and support of many people. My special thanks go to Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah that provided me with this opportunity to conduct research in UK. I have been extremely lucky and grateful to have Dr Sameh Hanna as my supervisor, who has been always supportive personally and academically. I would like to thank him for his excellent supervision and his valuable insights and patience. I am also thankful to my second supervisor Prof James Dickins for his guidance and advice. Many thanks go to my parents, brothers and sisters for their love and encouragement and to everyone who helped me throughout this journey at any stage and in any way. This thesis would not have been possible without the limitless support, encouragement and patience of my husband, Majed, and my two beautiful boys, Yusuf and Omar. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything. iii ABSTRACT This thesis attempts to investigate how George Bernard Shaw’s drama has been represented and negotiated in Arabic translation through identifying the socio- cultural and political factors including poetics, patronage, capital, field properties, and censorship practices that conditioned its introduction, production, dissemination and reception. Drawing on concepts from Pierre Bourdieu’s social practice theory and Lefevere’s rewriting theory, the Arabic translations of Shaw’s drama are studied as a socially regulated activity rather than merely linguistic as previously researched. The study aims at analysing the Arabic translations meant for various media against the backdrop of their different contexts textually, contextually and paratextually. After setting out the key problems and strategies and other issues related to drama translation from the perspectives of both translation and theatre studies, the study gives a historical background to the introduction and development of drama in the Arab culture in which translation played a major role. It identifies the socio-cultural and political influences that motivated the translation or rewriting of Shaw’s drama in different time and place. A mapping of both the published drama translations in the twentieth century and of the published material on Shaw in various areas (i.e. academia; reading, stage and radio translations; and cinema and TV adaptations) are provided in tables and charts. Different Arabic stage rewritings of Shaw’s Pygmalion have been analysed in order to determine the different forces in the contexts where they operate that affect their forming. These rewritings range from 1969 to 2017 in Egypt and Lebanon. Then, eight plays by Shaw with their Arabic translations and retranslations are also analysed to identify the socio-cultural and political dynamics that informed their shaping and the reasons behind the presence of multiple retranslations. iv TRANSCRIPTIONS OF ARABIC SOUNDS The transcription of Arabic sounds in this study follows the style of The International Journal of Middle East Studies. Names and titles are transcribed accordingly. The names of Arab authors published in a language other than Arabic are kept as they appear in the publication. Here are the list of sound symbols used to transcribe Arabic sounds: Consonants Arabic Transliteration Arabic Transliteration ṭ ط ̓ ء ẓ ظ b ب ‘ ع t ت gh غ th ث f ف j ج q ق ḥ ح k ك kh خ l ل d د m م dh ذ n ن r ر h هـ z ز w و s س y ي sh ش -al الـ ṣ ص a/-t- ة ḍ ض Vowels Short vowels: a,i,u Double vowel: iyy (in final position) Long vowels: ā, ī, ū Diphthongs: aw, ay v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ iv TRANSCRIPTIONS OF ARABIC SOUNDS ...................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER ONE: FOCUS OF THE STUDY: RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND DATA ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Bernard Shaw’s Drama in Arabic Translation: Previous Research and Rationale ............................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Questions and Organization of the Thesis ....................................... 3 1.3 Data: Selection Criteria, Translation Lists and Other Databases .................... 7 1.4 A Note on Terminology .................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER TWO: DRAMA TRANSLATION: THEORETICAL ISSUES AND PRACTICAL CHALLENGES ............................................................................... 10 2.1 Theorising Drama Translation ...................................................................... 10 2.2 Drama Translation: Readings, Problems and Strategies ............................... 12 2.2.1 Various Readings of the Playtext ........................................................... 12 2.2.2 Problems of Translating Playtexts ......................................................... 13 2.2.3 Strategies of Translating Playtexts ......................................................... 15 2.3 From Page to Stage and Radio: Implications and Debates ........................... 17 2.3.1 Page versus Stage ................................................................................... 17 2.3.2 From Page to Stage and Radio ............................................................... 20 2.3.3 The Collaborative Task and the Translator ............................................ 21 2.3.4 The Stages of Transforming a Playtext from Page to Stage .................. 23 2.4 Notions Relating to Theatre Translation ....................................................... 25 2.4.1 Speakability, Graspability and Playability ............................................. 25 2.4.2 Performability and the Mise en Scène .................................................... 26 2.4.3 The Stylisation of Dramatic Discourse .................................................. 30 vi 2.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER THREE: THEORISING THE SOCIO-CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF TRANSLATION..................................................................................................... 33 3.1 Translation as Rewriting: Poetics and Patronage as Constraining Factors ... 34 3.1.1 Poetics .................................................................................................... 36 3.1.2 Patronage ................................................................................................ 37 3.1.3 Poetics and Patronage at Work: The Codification of Poetics, Patrons’ Censorship and Change in the Literary System .............................................. 39 3.2 Translation as a Social Practice: Bourdieu’s Theory of Cultural Action ...... 42 3.2.1 Field ....................................................................................................... 43 3.2.2 Capital .................................................................................................... 44 3.3 Towards an Analytical Model ....................................................................... 47 3.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 49 CHAPTER FOUR: GENESIS OF DRAMA AND DRAMA TRANSLATION IN THE ARAB WORLD ............................................................................................. 50 4.1 Beginnings and Development: The History of the Arabic Dramatic Field ... 51 4.1.1 Birth of Arabic Drama ........................................................................... 51 4.1.2 Development of Arabic Drama: A Historical Overview of the Political, Social and Economic Conditions in Egypt ..................................................... 58 4.1.3 The Language of Drama: The Debate over Arabic Varieties ................. 67 4.2 Poetics of Translation into Arabic: Literature and Drama ............................ 74 4.2.1 Understanding the Socio-cultural Dynamics of Translation and Production of Literature and Drama in Egypt ................................................. 74 4.2.2 Dynamics of Selecting Texts, Approaches and Registers for Drama Translation