Locating the Intercultural Discourse of Leila Aboulela’s The Translator; Cultural Compatibility, Clash of Civilization or a Not-yet-told Story?

ABSTRACT

Leila Aboulela’s novel, The Translator, animates diverse critical responses in the context of intercultural narratives within literary studies and beyond. The observation of this paper is that a growing body of research undergoes dialectical cultural controversy whether adopting deeply critical position of the novel or otherwise. The purpose of this paper is to examine these responses in the context of the moral philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism. It takes a further step to address the novel’s dialogic strands and claims that Aboulela’s depiction of intercultural discourse embraces a polyphonic voicedness that is necessary for dialogic negotiations with a difference. With the assumption that intercultural dialogue can reinstate critical cultural awareness as an antidote to “clash of civilizations,” the paper rehearses the “healing” power of dialogism in intercultural narratives. It concludes that moral valuations always exist in “dialogic spaces” that offer moral outlooks for restructuring identities and creating shared orientations.

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Ayman Abu-Shomar

Ayman Abu-Shomar (PhD) is Assistant Professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies in The University of Jordan, Aqaba, Jordan. Previous to this, he taught in Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Warwick University (UK), and extensively in Saudi Arabia. His principal research interests are contemporary English literature, contemporary literary theories, post-colonialism, diaspora, dialogism and intercultural studies. He has a particular interest in issues pertaining to diaspora, trauma, cultural theories, critical pedagogy, cross-cultural encounters and anti-canonicity. His papers on postcolonial and cultural studies have been published in several books and Journals. He has also participated in different international conferences including UK, USA, Turkey, Jordan, UAE, Malaysia and Sweden and recently acted as a keynote speaker in a conference entitled anti/post-dispensary literary theory in Kirwan University/Tunisia.