WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Sudanese literature in English translation: an analytical study of the translation with a historical introduction to the literature. Thorraya Soghayroon School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © The Author, 2010. This is an exact reproduction of the paper copy held by the University of Westminster library. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Users are permitted to download and/or print one copy for non-commercial private study or research. Further distribution and any use of material from within this archive for profit-making enterprises or for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: (http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] Sudanese Literature in English Translation: An Analytical Study of the Translation with a Historical Introduction to the Literature Thorraya Soghayroon A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the University of Westminster for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2010 Abstract This thesis sets out to record, analyze, and assess modern Sudanese literature within its historical, cultural, and political context. It highlights the diversity and distinctiveness of that literature, the wide range of its themes, and the resilience and complex background of its major practitioners. A principal preoccupation of the study, however, is to point out the various challenges this literature, its universality and appeal notwithstanding, poses to translators. The close and intimate connection between its bold and vibrant colloquial expressions and the cultural and geographical environment in which these expressions are entrenched makes the task of the translator, especially one translating into a somewhat “remote” language like English, fraught with difficulty, at times unachievable. The near impossibility of rendering such expressions, proverbs, allusions to religious texts, and metaphors into English is illustrated in many examples. Paradoxically, such inadequacies and challenges, analysed from a semantic and syntactical perspective and investing in translation theory, point to a remarkable resilience and inventiveness of the translators involved as well as to the importance of translation in acting as a bridge between cultures. This thesis is structured in three parts. Part One examines the historical, cultural, social, political, religious, and linguistic factors that went into the making of modern Sudanese literature. Using postcolonial theory, it explores in some depth Sudanese cultural identity and self-identification as expressed in and partly shaped by the evolving literature. That body of written, and, in part, oral expression, was traditionally nourished by the two main streams of Arab and African cultures, but was steadily enriched under British occupation by exposure to Western, and principally English, literature and literary criteria as well as by a modern system of education. The study highlights what it claims to be highly distinctive and indeed unique features of Sudanese literature, reflecting the many-sidedness and complexity of its country, itself being a huge melting pot, whose very existence has been severely tested in more recent times. Part Two of the study offers a critical survey of Sudanese literature, examining its two main genres, poetry and fiction, and its evolution over three major literary periods, the Neoclassical, the Romantic and the Social Realist. The contributions made by literary movements or groups established and led by some prominent cultural and national figures and in which belles-lettres and patriotism were interwoven are also highlighted and assessed. This part elaborates on the dynamic which saw modern Sudanese writers interacting with influences from Western literature and investing in new literary genres while maintaining links with and creatively building on traditional and modern Arabic literature, itself evolving under various influences and requirements from without each country and within. Part Three focuses on Sudanese literature in English translation through a close analysis of representative texts with a view to illustrating and addressing specific problems and challenges associated with the task of translation. The samples are drawn from the literary genres and texts discussed in Part Two and are reflective of the themes tackled in the first two parts, thus emphasising the coherence and unity of the study. The methodology used involves applying theories of translation but also invests in insights gained from interviews conducted with some of the writers and translators discussed in the study as well as from feedback provided by ten native speaker informants. Taking into consideration the hybrid nature of modern Sudanese Literature and the cultural and linguistic diversity of its context, many difficulties are highlighted along with the range of strategies used by translators to address them. Table of Contents Page Abstract Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Part One: 5 I. A Profile of the Sudan and Sudanese People (Unity in Diversity) I.1. The Ethnic Dimension 8 I.2. The Religious Dimension 9 I.3. The Linguistic Dimension 11 I,4. Sudanese Self-Identity II. Sudanese Literature and Nationalism 24 III. The Graduate Congress 35 IV Sudanese literature within a Postcolonial Context 41 V. Cultural Resistance 59 VI. Sudanese Poets and Writers in Exile 72 VII. Women Writers in Sudanese literature 80 VIII. The Uniqueness of Sudanese Literature 94 IX. The School of the First and the Desert 95 IX. Sudanism of Sudanese Literature 105 Part Two II. Modern Sudanese Literature: a Study of Genres and Schools II.A. Poetry II.A.1. Neo-Classical School 130 II.A.2.The Romantic School 143 II.A.3. The Realistic School 159 II.A.4. The October Group 184 II.A.5. The Aba Damak Group 185 II.A.6. Other Poetic Genres: Folk Literature: 188 a- Al-Dubait 191 b- Al-Haqiba 196 c- Al-Madih 198 d- Aghani al-Banat 215 II.B. Fiction 219 II.B.1. The Short Story 221 II.B.2. The Sudanese Novel 224 Part Three 230 III. Sudanese Literature in English Translation: A Semantic and Syntactic Analysis III.1 Theory of Meaning 231 III.1.A. Collocation 233 III.1.B. Context of Situation 237 III.1.C. Grammar and Meaning 240 III.2.Theory of Equivalence 250 III.3.Limits of Translatability 257 Conclusion 292 Bibliography 297 Introduction This work endeavours to survey, showcase, and critique modern Sudanese literature emphasising its diversity and versatility within its cultural and political context and highlighting the various challenges its translation into another language, in this instance English, poses to translators. A wide range of literary works from poetry, the novel, the short story, folktales and popular ballads are selected for analysis. Theories of translation and postcolonial literary criticism are invested in with a view to illuminating various aspects of the works under analysis as well as to relate the study, specific as it is, to other postcolonial literatures, with the role of literature in the formation of national identity being a major question, theme and preoccupation of this thesis. Little is known of Sudanese literature in the West. The first attempt to collect representative samples of Sudanese literature in English translation was made by ‘Uthman Ḥassan Ahmad and Constance Berkley, in 1981. During his term of office as Cultural Counsellor of the Sudan in Washington, Ahmad compiled and edited a series of Sudanese publications. Among them was an anthology of Sudanese poetry which comprised translations of seventeen poems by northern poets, and twelve poems written in English by southern and northern poets. Ahmad also collected and edited an anthology of sixteen short stories, ten of which were translated from Arabic and four were written in English. Determined and indefatigable and with a sense of a mission, he also edited a collection of Dinka songs and Sudanese folktales, along with a bibliography of documentary and educational films on the Sudan. Sudanese folktales somehow stood a better chance of being recorded, albeit in a small part, than poetry and novels. The first booklet of Sudanese folktales contained eight tales. ‘Abdullah al- Tayyib’s most popular book, Alahaji, which comprised twenty-one tales, came out in Arabic in 1978. A 1978 collection of folk stories from northern and central Sudan by Al-Shahi and F.C.T. Moor appeared as one volume in the series Oxford Library of African Literature. Another collection by Jamal Mohammad Ahmad contained fourteen tales. In 1998, the celebrated Denys Johnson-Davies produced his Tales from Sudan, which contained six stories he translated as part of a major contribution he was making towards securing a foothold for Sudanese and more generally modern Arabic literature in the English-speaking world. 1 The present study seeks to ally itself to that endeavour. While critically recording and assessing representative works from a variety of literary genres, it hopes to make available to scholars and non-Arabic speakers a