Paradigms of Power in Postcolonial Translation

Abstract

This essay examines Mohammad Rabie’s Otared (Arabic 2014; English 2016) and Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (Arabic 2013; English 2018) with an emphasis on the transformation of dystopia. I argue that Rabie and Saadawi have constructed their dystopian novels under the influence of Western literature while being directly affected by the dire political situations that they find themselves in. Rabie engages with the Arab Spring and the far-reaching impact of colonialism, whereas Saadawi deals with Iraq’s sombre realities against the backdrop of the American-led invasion in 2003. Their respective accounts are not merely a recycling of Western genres but are also profoundly impacted by the prevailing circumstances while being portrayed on the global stage via translation. In this way, they manifest a powerful insight into the translation of Arabic dystopian fiction, which is shaped by colonial and postcolonial power relations. In the proliferation of Arabic dystopian fiction, translation acts as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, translation specifies how colonialist forces impose Western influence upon the Arabic culture. On the other hand, it becomes a powerful tool to expose Western readers to the Arab people’s harrowing postcolonial and post-revolutionary experiences.

Keywords:

• Arab Spring
• Arabic dystopian novels
• postcolonial translation
• power dynamic
• scriptwriting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 It is pertinent to note that Arabic dystopia as a genre is still in a nascent stage, which I sought to establish in “The Rise of Dystopian Novels in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring: Double-Edged Sword” (Alhashmi n.d.).

2 IPAF is considered the most distinguished literary prize in the Arab world along with others, such as the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature (1966, Egypt, The American University in Cairo); the Mohamed Zafzaf Prize for Arabic Literature (2002, Morocco); The Sheikh Zayed Book Award (2007, Abu Dhabi, UAE); and The Katara Prize for Arabic Fiction (2014, Qatar).

3 In “Eyes on the Prize,” Stanton (2021) argues that the selected winning novels in IPAF are based on their mode of readability, as in the case of Saud Al-Sanousi’s Saq al-Bambu, which won the prize in 2013.

4 In “Middle Eastern Writers Find Refuge in the Dystopian Novel,” Alexandra Alter (2016) notes that the explosion of dystopian fiction after the Arab Spring aims to reflect “the sense of despair that many writers say they feel in the face of cyclical violence and repression.” Similarly, Lina Mounzer (2019) argues in “Apocalypse Now” that Arabic authors have resorted to dystopian narrative in order to make sense of the nightmarish present after the failure of the Arab Spring.

5 The meaning of Otared is the planet Mercury in Arabic. The translator, Robin Moger, opts to translate it as Otared because the last name of the protagonist is the same as the title (Rabie 2016).

6 Hassan points to the limited horizons of postcolonial theory, insofar as it is derived “from Western secular anti-humanism,” arguing that it “is in no better position to offer any deeper insights into the Arab world’s ‘cultural wars’ than the Western media, since those wars are fought over the interpretation of Islam, not its decentralization or its deconstruction” (2002, 56).

7 Hassan aptly notes: “The nineteenth-century disciples of Rifa’a al-Tahtawi saw their task as one of selective borrowing from Europe while at the same time preserving Arab cultural identity, and that explains the renewed interest, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, in classical Arabic poetry, the cultural product of the perceived Golden Age of Arabic literature (5th–11th centuries)” (2002, 57).

8 Translating literature from the English language become the practice of “Syrian immigrants who had been trained at the American school in Beirut, and the Egyptian students who had graduated from schools under British control” (Moosa 1976, 213).

9 This line of argument resonates with Michael Thelwell’s account. He argues, “This novel is a cultural hybrid, the child of the clash of cultures … The stories in it are translations” (1987, 215).