Translating (in) the Arab World

Edited by: Sameh Fekry Hanna, University College London

With very few exceptions, Arabic perspectives on translation have remained largely hidden from view despite these recent developments, and even though there are arguably more pressing reasons today for engaging with this particular area of the world than at any other time in history. Stimulating research on translation and interpreting by and among speakers of Arabic, as well as giving this research the kind of visibility it deserves at a time when Arab culture is the target of indiscriminate and often racist attacks, is one of the main objectives of this initiative. This volume will aspire to avoid the limitations of most available research on the realities of translation in the Arab World. Two limitations can be identified, one relates to the approaches underlying this research and the other to the material investigated. First, the dominance of linguistic models of analysis, though helpful in the context of translation pedagogy, has so far eclipsed a number of questions and issues that merit the attention of researchers on translation in the Arab World. These include questions as varied as the agency of translators, institutional translation policies, dominant and subversive translation norms, translation of cultural taboos and censorship, translation as a means of political resistance, and translation and the mediation of conflicts, among other issues. Second, the fact that most research on translation in this area has been mainly concerned with 'written', and specifically literary translation, has obscured the complexity and relevance of other translation and interpreting practices in the Arab World; these remain, to a large extent, a terra incognita. While welcoming articles on literary translation, the editor is particularly interested in contributions on less-researched domains, such as interpreting, media translation and audio-visual translation. At the geographical level, some parts in the Arab World are more visible in research on translation than others. The fact that the 'Arabic tradition in translation' is generally associated in the minds of researchers with the history of translation in Egypt and Lebanon is illustrative of this unequal representation of Arab countries in research on translation. Tied to this issue is the lack of comparative studies on translation practices in different Arab countries. The editor would therefore particularly welcome contributions that engage with translation and interpreting in less researched regions, such as Algeria, Sudan, the Gulf, etc. The following is an indicative - though not exhaustive - list of topics which may be considered by contributors to the volume: o Translation and interpreting in the Arab World and the conflict between dominant and subversive norms; o Institutional translation policies; o Translation and the representation of national, regional and Pan-Arab identities; o Translation and gender in the Arab context; o Translation and the mediation of political conflicts; o Translation and the representation of Arab identity in international mass media; o Censorship and the translation of cultural taboos; o Translation of comics and other culturally-sensitive genres; o Translation as a means of political resistance; o Translation and the economy of cultural production in the Arab world; o Practices of audio-visual translation in the Arab context; o Discourses on translation in the Arab World; o Comparative studies on translation practice and research in different Arab countries; o Alternative histories of translation in the Arab World. Schedule: 20th March 2007: deadline for submitting abstracts (400-500 words) 30th April 2007: notification of acceptance. 30th September 2007: deadline for submission of papers 15 December 2007: confirmation of provisional acceptance of papers 31st January 2008: referee feedback forwarded to authors 30 March 2008: submission of final versions of papers to editor (6000-8000 words) 1 June 2008: submission of final manuscript to publisher April 2009: publication date. Editor Sameh Fekry Hanna is the Andrew Mellon Fellow in the Humanities, University College London. He wrote his PhD, at Manchester, on the implications of Bourdieu's sociology of cultural production for the study of drama translation. His published research addresses such issues as the sociology of translation, drama translation, Shakespeare translation in Egypt, translation and the construction of national identity, literary translation and translation in the Arabic tradition. Contact Details: Sameh Fekry Hanna c/o Vice-Provost's office (Academic and International) University College London Gower Street WC1E 6BT Email: sameh.hanna@ucl.ac.uk