book notice: Translation and the Manipulation of Difference: Shamma

[Harold Schiffman]

Translation and the Manipulation of Difference: Shamma


Title: Translation and the Manipulation of Difference
Subtitle: Arabic Literature in Nineteenth-Century England
Published: 2009
Publisher: St. Jerome Publishing Ltd
                http://www.stjerome.co.uk

Author: Tarek Shamma
Abstract:

Translation and the Manipulation of Difference explores the question of
difference in translation and offers an extended critique of the advocacy
of foreignizing translation as a practice that does not minimize the
alterity of the foreign text, and could therefore serve as an antidote to
ethnocentrism and cultural insularity.

Shamma examines the reception of Arabic literature - especially the Arabian
Nights - in nineteenth-century England and offers a detailed analysis of
the period's major translations from Arabic: by Edward Lane, Richard Burton
and Wilfred Blunt. He demonstrates that the long, complicated history of
interaction, often confrontation, between Europe and the Arab World, where
(mis)representations of the Other were intricately embroiled with political
struggles, provides a critical position from which to examine the crucial
role of context, above and beyond the textual elements of the translation,
in shaping the political effects of translation. Examining translation
techniques and decisions in the context of the translators' own goals as
well as the conditions that surrounded the reception of their work, the
study shows how each translator 'manipulated' his original in line with
political positions that ranged from (implicit) acquiescence to steadfast
resistance to colonialism. In a carefully elaborated critique of totalizing
positions, the author argues that the foreignizing-domesticating model is
too limited to describe the social and political function of translation
and calls for a more complex understanding of the sociopolitical dimensions
of translation strategies.

Linguistic Field(s): Translation

Subject Language(s): English (eng)

Written In: English (eng )

See this book announcement on our website:
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=40220

http://linguistlist.org/issues/20/20-958.html
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