The Reality of Arabic Fiction Translation into English:
A Sociological Approach
Abdel Wahab Khalifa
1
a
, Ahmed Elgindy
2
b
Abstract
English translations of texts associated with Arabic fiction
remain largely unexplored from a sociological perspective.
, this paper aims to
examine the genesis of Arabic fiction translation into
English as a socially situated activity. Works of Arabic
fiction emerged in English translation in the early twentieth
century. Since then, this intellectual field of activity has
gone through three distinct, though overlapping, phases that
have affected its structure, capital at stake, agents involved,
modes of production, and the volume of activity. This paper
also aims to argue for a fourth phase which could be
referred to as post 9/11 phase and will investigate its
agents and dynamics. The field of Arabic fiction translation
into English was subjected to both internal and external
factors which formed and conditioned its structure and
dynamics. In contrast to the linear understanding of the
history of Arabic fiction translation, sociological
concepts of field and capital will be used as analytical tools
to both describe and interpret the translation activity in this
field.
© 2014 IJSCL. All rights reserved.
1
Ph.D. Candidate, Email: mlawmk@leeds.ac.uk (Corresponding Author)
Tel: +44-744-794-544 0
2
Associate Professor, Email: a.elgi[email protected]
a
The University of Leeds, UK (*On study leave from Tanta University, Egypt)
b
The University of Salford, UK
ARTICLE HISTORY:
Received February 2014
Received in revised form April 2014
Accepted April 2014
Available online April 2014
KEYWORDS:
Arabic fiction
Sociology of Translation
Bourdieu
Field
Capital
42
The Reality of Arabic Fiction Translation into English: A Sociological Approach
1. Introduction
he literary genre of fiction is perceived
as a rich source of material for
translation by many. Allen (2003, p. 1)
slation as in creative
most frequently encountered literary
paper aims to study the translations of Arabic
fiction into English as socially situated
activities, or as Hermans (1997, p. 10) puts it
egulated activity. This in turn,
means that translation is affected by translators
and other agents who might be involved in the
translation process. It also means that
translations always reflect the historical and
cultural conditions under which they are
produced (Wolf, 2007). In this context, the
analysis of the social dimensions of translation
translation is established by its relationship to
the cultural and social conditions under which
it is produced a
The idea of representing the social world as a
space, constructed on the basis of distinction
and constituted by a set of properties and
power relations between participants within
sociology.
field, which was developed to refer to a
socially organised, quasi-autonomous space
that has definable boundaries, and his concept
of capital, in its materialised and embodied
forms, this paper seeks to investigate the
genesis of the translations of Arabic fiction
into English. The two concepts will be used as
analytical tools to examine the dynamics and
boundaries of a postulated field that could be
.
2. Translations of Arabic Fiction into
English: The Genesis of the Field
As Bourdieu (2005) contends, it is necessary
to account for the social space within which
interactions and events take place. The social
space Bourdieu is referring to here is what he
calls field (Grenfell, 2008). Bourdieu (1990, p.
constituted areas of activity with its specific
. He
further argues that, any field is occupied by
agents who acknowledge and refer to its
history and structure (Bourdieu, 1990).
field is premised on the
-specific or
generic (Bourdieu, 1990), and that:
The existence of specialized and
relatively autonomous field is correlative
with the existence of specific stakes and
interests; via the inseparably economic
and psychological investments that they
arouse in agents endowed with certain
habitus, the field and its stakes
(themselves are produced as such by
power relations and struggle in order to
transform the power relations that are
constitutive of the field) produce
investments of time, money, work, etc.
In other words, interest is at once a
conditioning of the function of the field,
compete and struggle with each other,
and a product of the way the field
functions (Bourdieu, 1990, p. 88).
The struggle between the various agents
legitimizes the stakes themselves, and
determines which stakes hold what value
(Warde, 2004). In other words, the existence
of a field with positions presupposes and
creates a conviction on the part of the
participants in the authenticity and worth of
the capital at stake in the field (Jenkins, 2002).
that a social field comprises social positions
occupied by social agents who could be
individuals, institutions, or organizations.
What can be done in a field is shaped and
informed by its rules of participation,
boundaries, and participating agents.
field is his
concept of capital. The Bourdieusian
understanding of capital is wider than its
economic reference. For Bourdieu (1986, p.
-
monetary, as well as tangible and intangible
distinguishable forms:
T
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A. W. Khalifa & A. Elgindy / International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 2(2), 2014 ISSN 2329-2210
1. Economic capital: refers to monetary
income and other financial resources
and finds its institutional expression in
the form of property rights.
2. Cultural capital: refers to non-
financial assets, such as educational
qualifications, which could promote
social mobility beyond economic
means (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990).
3. Social capital: refers to the network of
to certain organisations. According to
Bourdieu (1986), social capital can be
seen as one of the several resources
used to obtain or maintain positions of
power within a field.
Symbolic capital is another form of capital
suggested by Bourdieu. It is a manifestation of
each of the other forms of capital when they
are naturalised on their own terms (Bourdieu,
1990). That is to say, symbolic capital is the
resources available to a social agent on the
basis of prestige or recognition, which
functions as an authoritative embodiment of
cultural value.
For the benefit of this paper, it is economic,
social, and symbolic capital that are
particularly relevant to the examination of the
field of Arabic fiction translation into English.
The field of Arabic fiction translation into
English is not rigid but dynamic, and its
boundaries are not static limits determined
once and for all. Boundaries, in reality, are
determined by internal and external factors.
The former relates to the struggle between
s
the field, and the latter relates to the
relationship between the field of fiction
translation and the field of power.
The points of entry of any field, i.e., its limits,
which are institutionally established, are
have any influence or
consequence on practice (Bourdieu &
Wacquant, 1992, p. 100). Bourdieu argues that
the boundaries of the field can only be
determined by an empirical investigation
(Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992; Jenkins, 2002).
This means that the boundaries of the field of
fiction translation can only be assessed by
relations between the field and its occupants,
and between the field in question and other
fields.
Arabic fiction, for the purpose of this paper, is
defined as the bulk of narrative prose works,
i.e., novels, novellas, and short stories, written
in Arabic. Thus, in conformity with this
definition, this paper will only encompass the
Arabic fiction output originally written in
Arabic and translated into English.
Although the modern Arabic fiction tradition
started with the emergence of the novel genre
in the mid/late nineteenth century, it was the
Arabic short story that thrived first into a
developed mature genre (Jayyusi, 2008). The
pioneers of Arabic fiction were mainly a small
group of avant-
from other springs and look[ed] at the world
the new literary writing genres, bridge the gap
between the classical and the modern, and
raise the standard of literary taste in the region
(Gibb, 1962, pp. 246-7). It was at some
unspecified point in time during the twentieth
century that the fiction genre superseded
poetry as the most dominant literary form in
the Arab world, and it has maintained
ascendancy ever since (Allen, 2003). This
phase of growth and transformation was
marked by the emergence of the Arabic novel,
the development of the short story, as well as
the birth of other new literary forms and
genres.
Altoma (1996; 2000; 2005) argues that there
along the evolution of the field of translating
Arabic fiction into English. This paper will
argue for a fourth phase which will be
discussed in detail later. These four distinct,
though overlapping, phases are the initial
phase, expanding phase, post-Nobel phase,
and post-9/11 phase.
3. The Initial Phase (1908 – 1967)
Although Altoma (2005) identified this phase
as beginning in 1947, it has been possible to
trace the first English translation of a work of
Arabic fiction back to 1908. That was Frank
44
The Reality of Arabic Fiction Translation into English: A Sociological Approach
novella al-Tuḥfah al-ʻāmmīyah aw qiṣṣat
Finyānūs, which was rendered as The Pitiful
Pilgrimage of Phinyanus. Between 1908 and
1947 only a small number of translated short
stories and novels were sparsely published
(Altoma, 2005).
During this phase, little or no attention was
given to translating and/or translated Arabic
fiction into English by either English
publishers or English reading public. Among
the attributing factors to this disinterestedness
in Arabic fiction are:
1- The late development of modern Arabic
fiction seems to have coincided with the
reservations expressed by various
orientalists about the appeal and literary
value of Arabic fiction, either in
translation or in original form. These
stories, novels, and plays, remain bounded
by the horizons and conventions of the
Arab world: when translated into other
languages they are often more interesting
as social documents than as literary
.
2- The lack of specialists with adequate
knowledge of the Arabic language and
culture seems to have helped promote the
idea that Arabic has an inherent
disadvantage. Due to this limited
familiarity with the Arabic language and
culture, and because of the umbilical
Arabic was regarded in the Anglo-
American sphere, and the West in general,
. It was also seen as being
intrinsically untranslatable or
(Said, 1990, p. 278).
3- The hegemony of English, and the rise of
and self-sufficiency resulted in perceiving
significance than the tastes of the
p. 4).
It was through the efforts of some persevering
individuals, who endeavoured to introduce
Arabic fiction to the English speaking world
and make it accessible by means of translation,
that a field of Arabic fiction translation began
to formulate. The task of these individuals was
not by any means easy but rather long and
arduous. During this phase, translations were
not voluminous for finding a publisher was a
difficult task. Büchler and Guthrie (2011, p.
impossible to find a publisher willing to take
. In an
attempt to change the trend of the publishing
market, the exponent translators of Arabic
fiction paid more attention to translating short
stories than novels. Although the reasons for
this can be ascribed to the dominant position
enjoyed by the short story in the field of
modern Arabic fiction at that time, one could
argue that these reasons relate primarily to the
fact that it was easier to have translated short
stories published by means of squeezing them
in periodicals and intellectual journals.
In his Bibliography of Modern Arabic Fiction
in English Translation, Alwan (1972) was able
to cite a handful of English translations of
Arabic novels and as little as 200 short stories
up until that time. The selection of what to be
translated was largely driven by the translators
themselves, and it seemed that it had little to
do with the works literary merits. Rather the
personal preference and their awareness of a
culture, or having a personal relationship with
the author. This process indeed resulted in a
Arabic fiction into English (LeGassick, 1992,
p. 48).
The year 1932 witnessed the publication of the
first translated Arabic novel. E.H. Paxton
tripartite autobiographical novel Al-Ayyām
(published in Arabic in 1929) as An Egyptian
Childhood. The second
memoirs appeared in Arabic in 1939 and was
published as an English translation in 1943.
This time the translation was undertaken by
Hilary Wayment as The Stream of Days. The
third part, however, came out in Arabic in
1967 and appeared in English in 1976. The
novel was rendered by Kenneth Cragg as A
Passage to France. Kuiper (2009, p. 107)
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states that Al-Ayyām
.
1947 witnessed an upturn in the number of
translations of Arabic fiction into English. The
second translation of an Arabic novel was
Tawfiq Al- Yawmīyāt nāʼib fī
al-aryāf, by Aubrey (Abba) Eban, who
translated the novel in 1947 as Maze of
Justice. This was followed by Abdel- Rahman
Al- Egyptian Earth in 1962;
The Call of the
Unknown in 1964; Al- Birds of the
East Midaq
Alley, the first novel of the Nobel Laureate to
appear in English translation, in 1966.
Significant among the publishers of this period
was the Lebanese publisher Khayyat. He
published books and reprinted classical Arabic
literature works produced by other publishers
such as Brill and Leipzig. It seems that this
have secured him some social and symbolic
capital in the Arabic literary field. Between
1961 and 1966 he published English
translations of four Arabic fiction works, the
Midaq Alley. It
was reported by Mahfouz, however, that
Shabrawy, 1992). Such events did not help the
process of finding a publisher as will be shown
later.
The role played by Denys Johnson-Davies, or
describes him, in expanding the field of Arabic
fiction translation into English during this
phase cannot be overlooked. Johnson-Davies,
a Muslim-convert who studied Arabic at
Cambridge and has lived in and travelled to
numerous, highly successful and well received
Tales from
Egyptian Life was his first translated collection
of short stories written by Mahmoud Taymour
in 1947. The translation was published in
Cairo in 1949 by Renaissance Bookshop at
Johnson- -
Davies, 2007). In the 1960s, he initiated a
quarterly literary magazine in London to
-Davies, 2006, p.
69). Spanning only twelve issues between
1961 and 1963, the magazine was influential
in presenting the avant-garde Arabic fiction
writers, albeit mostly short story writers, to the
Anglophone world.
It was not until 1967 that his second collection
of translated short stories was published by
Oxford University Press. The publication was
fortuitous according to Johnson-Davies
(2007). In this collection he introduced a wide
selection of short stories from different parts
of the Arab world. Johnson-
capital aided his efforts in progressing the field
of Arabic fiction translation. It was through
one of his friends that he managed to get his
second collection published. Johnson-Davies
(Johnson-Davies, 2006, p. 46). Social capital,
which is the network of relationships that
agents could deploy to achieve dominance,
consecrate their positions or increase their
assets, is manifest in this incident. It is safe to
argue that was it not for Johnson-
social capital the collection may have not been
published, which would consequently impact
important role played by Johnson-Davis in the
development of the field. The anthology,
writes Johnson-Davies (2006)
for publication as a work of scholarship rather
than of any literary merits it might have; there
was also one condition: that a scholar of
(p. 46). This condition was met when Arthur
Arberry accepted to write the introduction.
This prerequisite highlights the value of
symbolic capital and the role it played in the
development of the field of Arabic fiction
translation into English.
The mode of circulation and consumption and
subsequently the growth of the field seem to
have been affected by external socio-political
factors. Johnson-
book came out at an unfortunate time the
Arab-Israeli conflict and most people's
sympathies were not with the Arabs. While
sales in England were not particularly good,
not a single copy of the book was bought by
any Arab government or institution.
However, according to Said (1990, p. 280),
although Arab writers, publishers, and
46
The Reality of Arabic Fiction Translation into English: A Sociological Approach
trend of governmental support was slightly
reversed in later phases.
The twenty years gap between the publication
of the first and second translated collections
publisher for Arabic literary works . . . but,
more importantly the marginality assigned to
-
American world (Altoma, 2000, p. 65). The
number of translations was not inspiring
according to Altoma (2005), who states that
between 1947 and 1967 there were only
sixteen English translations of Arabic fiction
works, as a direct result of the reasons
previously cited.
It was in the 1960s that a considerable number
of Arabic fiction works appeared in English
translation. The role played by the American
significantly helped delineate the boundaries
of the field. Aimed at providing the US with
offered federal support to modern foreign
languages learning, literature scholarly
research, and encouraged universities to
appoint people with expertise in this area
(Rhoton, 2010, p. 291). Arabic was re-
languages. Section 602 of the Act asserts
that:
The Commissioner is authorized,
directly or by contract, to make studies
and surveys to determine the need for
increased or improved instruction in
modern foreign languages and other
fields needed to provide a full
understanding of the areas, regions, or
countries in which such languages are
commonly used, to conduct research on
more effective methods of teaching such
languages and in such other fields, and
to develop specialized materials for use
in such training, or in training teachers
of such languages or in such fields (p.
1594).
The above statement demonstrates what
Bourdieu refers to as the external factors that
may affect any social field, in this case, the
field of translating Arabic fiction; where the
needs of the American Ministry of Defence led
into increased activity in the field. This
illustrates that the field of translation in
general, and translation of Arabic fiction in
particular, is informed and influenced by its
relationship with the field of power, i.e., the
field of politics.
Although Arabic was being taught at some
universities before the 1960s, it was
considered as an ancient dead language and
was categorised along with classical Greek
and Latin. Despite its aesthetic characteristic,
long history, and artistic uniqueness, the
respectable [and] c
language to be studied and/or translated,
argues Said (1990, p. 278).
The influence of the American policy on
translation was not confined to the US; rather
it spread into other countries, such as the UK.
The signing of the National Defence and
Educational Act into law in the US in 1958
spurred the academic institutions in the UK to
offer similar courses on modern languages and
cultures too. For example, in 1964, the
University of Oxford appointed Mohamed
Badawi as its first specialist in modern Arabic
literary studies (Allen, 2009). The need for
English translations of Arabic literature to
suffice for these newly introduced courses has
persuaded some of the academic publishers to
produce their own translations.
4. The Expanding Phase (1968 – 1988)
Altoma (2005, p. 55) refers to the period from
. It
commences with what could be described as
an academic translation mini-boom of Arabic
fiction into English. Translation activity in this
period aimed mainly at enriching the content
of modern Arabic literature courses, which
began to emerge rapidly across the Anglo-
American world. This increased activity
helped the dissemination and appreciation of
modern Arabic fiction, despite the limited
number of students interested in studying
classical Arabic literature. Outside the
academic realm, Arabic fiction was still
considered rather insignificant and had a very
limited English public readership. The number
of translations produced by academic
institutions during this phase was considerable
47
A. W. Khalifa & A. Elgindy / International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 2(2), 2014 ISSN 2329-2210
compared to the previous one. However, these
translations did not receive wide plaudits, and
the quality of most of them was subject to
question.
For this phase, Altoma (2005) was able to list
approximately sixty Arabic novels and forty
short story collections published as English
translations. The list, however, shows the
predominance of Egyptian writers at the
expense of other Arab writers. He suggests
that Egypt played a central role in the
development of the field of translation of
Arabic literature since the nineteenth century.
He also argues that the activity of translating
Egyptian fiction in particular has increased as
a result of the support of some institutions
operating inside and outside Egypt. Büchler
and Guthrie (2011, p. 20), however, cited the
dominance over the other realms of cultural
activities in the Arab world as possible reasons
for the Egyptian dominance. Another possible
reason for the prevalence of Egyptian works
and writers is suggested by Eban (1944) who,
in relation to the status of Egypt and its
literature in the Arab world and Islam, argues
that:
Egypt belongs geo-graphically,
historically, and culturally to the
Hellenic world. It is as Mediterranean as
Italy or France. On several occasions,
before Islam had seen the light of day or
any Arab foot had trodden on Egyptian
soil, Egypt had been a centre, sometimes
the main centre, of Hellenic civilization .
. . . It is true that an Eastern religion-
Islam- had spread through Egypt in the
seventh century; but this no more
changed her essentially Hellenic nature
than the spread of an Oriental religion-
Christianity-had changed the Hellenic
outlook of Europe and converted that
Continent to an Eastern viewpoint. It is
mere superstition therefore to regard
Egypt as an Oriental country, and gross
reaction to keep any distance between
her and the European culture, Hellenic in
its origin, which she had fostered and
preserved . . . Egypt in short is the
partner of Europe as the joint heir of the
Hellenic tradition and must be a partner
in the new age of technical development
(pp. 174-5).
He further argues that:
Egyptian literature will dominate the
Arabic literary world largely because of
this disparity between its own
copiousness and the aridity which
prevails else- where; but mostly because
it has achieved the synthesis between
modernism and Muslim tradition; so that
in accepting Western ideas, the Arabic-
speaking world does not have to forgo
the staple diet whereby, for fifteen
centuries, it has been nurtured and
sustained (p. 178).
One of the noteworthy changes in the field
during this phase was the Anglo-American
translating Arabic fiction works written by
young women writers. Three factors coincided
to instigate the surge of this mode of
translation: First, the rise of the feminist
movement in the West, second, the emergence
of works by talented Arab women-writers
who sought an outlet to their views and
concerns in writing fictional works, and third,
the general Anglo-American desire to
propagate the opinions of these Arab women-
writers, and to have an insight into their
issues in
1996, p. 138). Nawal El-Saadawi was, and
still, the most translated Arab woman-writer.
Her mainly feminist fiction literature has
received wide acclaims in the West, especially
in the Anglo-American culture, due to her
conditions in Egypt and Arab societies than to
(Altoma, 2005, p. 56).
A number of translation initiatives and
publishers ought to be acknowledged for their
efforts in introducing Arabic fiction to the
Anglo-American world during this phase.
Following the success of its African Writers
series, which was launched in 1962 and
included some works by Arab writers who
happened to be also Africans, the London-
based Heinemann Educational Books, on
recommendation by the pioneer of Arabic
48
The Reality of Arabic Fiction Translation into English: A Sociological Approach
literature translation Denys Johnson-Davies,
made a decision in the 1970s to establish a
new Arab Authors series.
It was Johnson-D personal relationship
with James Currey, who was in charge of the
African Writers series, that led to the
introduction of the work of some Arab writers
in that series. Subsequently, this led into the
introduction of the Arab Authors series with
the aim of introducing new non-African Arab
authors to the Anglo-American reading public
through translation. Johnson-Davies states that
when he knew of the African Writers series, he
suggested to Currey that it would be better if
the series included other authors such as Alifa
Rifaat, Tayeb Salih, Tawfiq Al-Hakim, and
Naguib Mahfouz, all of whom were African-
Arabs. His suggestion was approved, which
re-demonstrates how his social capital helped
increase the volume of activity in the field
Arabic fiction translation into English.
H
problem of where to slot works by Palestinian
and Iraqi writers. Soon, it was agreed to
launch a new series under the title Arab
-Davies, 2007).
Johnson-Davies was the consultant editor to
the Arab Authors series and most of the
translations were either carried out by him or
conducted under his supervision. The series
than as academic documents or works of
ant
represents a canonical shift in the field of
translating Arabic fiction as a result of the
emergence of a new mode of production.
Arabic fiction in English translation started to
be read as a work of literature rather than a
scholarly document. The only criticism
levelled against the Arab Authors series,
most of the writers represented in the series
were Africans, especially Egyptians and
Sudanese, and that some of the works were
previously included already in the African
Writers series.
Following a take-over of Heinemann in the
late 1980s, and given that the Arab Authors
series
of the African se, the new owners decided
to discontinue publishing the Arab Authors
series (Clark, 2000, p. 11). Furthermore,
Heinemann cited the lack of market success
(Tresilian, 2010). On the basis of these
statements one could argue that economic
capital influenced the growth and contraction
of the field of Arabic fiction translation. The
decision of what and what not to translate was
merit but rather on its anticipated economic
value. In other words, the decisions on which
authors to include and which authors to
exclude in the series seems to have been based
on the anticipated economic yield of their
translated works for the English reading
public. This is supported by Youn
148) statement that some of the works had
, which was economically
successful. Although it was discontinued, the
Heinemann Arab Authors series helped bring
about some awareness of modern Arabic
literature in general, and Arabic fiction in
particular. It also helped put Arabic literature
on the world literary map.
Heinemann occupied a dominant position in
the field of Arabic fiction translation into
English in the UK. Similarly, there were two
main publishers dominating the field in the
US US were
Three Continents Press and Biblioteca
Islamica in Minneapolis. Although both
publishers were relatively inexperienced in the
1970s, they expressed willingness to publish
the works of Arab authors despite the
unpredictability attached to Arabic fiction at
that time. However, their enthusiasm
convinced them
tradition of such a large part of the world
should be of interest to the scholarly reading
public and, it was hoped, to a still broader
produced as part of the Middle Eastern
Literatures Series by
Studies, and the ones published by Three
Continents Press played a pivotal role in
bringing Arabic literature/fiction into the
attention of the English readership. Altoma
(2005, p. 57) states that Three Continents
.
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A. W. Khalifa & A. Elgindy / International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 2(2), 2014 ISSN 2329-2210
Donald Herdeck, the founder of Three
Continents
of prejudice in this country [the US] against
blacks and against Arabs, against Islam. There
is a lot of crookedness in covering the whole
idea of writing that comes from the Third
Wor
wanted to correct this misconception and fill
that void (Burgess, 1982).
Herdeck frequently criticised the American
policy, towards translations. He described
America as -
much investment of time and dollars in
Anderson, 1999, p. 35). He
further argues
Prize involved, there is not much interest
overall, and even surprise if the author is not
Anderson, 1999, p. 35
statements illustrate some of the external
factors that affected the structure of the field
and did not help the production, dissemination,
and consumption of Arabic fiction in English
translation. The American mind set and the
publishing policies, which were motivated by
economic capital in the main, restrained the
activity in the field.
This phase has also witnessed the birth of the
English (Allen, 2003, p. 4). Based in Boston
and London, and founded and directed by the
renowned Palestinian poet and critic Salma
Khadra Jayyusi, the Project of Translation
from Arabic (PROTA) was launched in the
late 1970s. PROTA was tasked by Columbia
University Press to prepare a large anthology
of modern Arabic literature and the project
was funded by the Iraqi Ministry of
Information and Culture. Dissatisfied with the
paucity, as well as the mode, of translation
production from Arabic into English, PROTA
implemented a new translation methodology
mission (Allen, 1994,
p. 166). According to Allen (2003, p. 4),
encompassed a two-
is that of rendering the source text into a
readable English version, the second the use of
an Anglophone litterateur to adapt the intertext
to styles and structures of contemporary
Anglo-.
editors, translators, and advisors bore fruit in
the publication of a considerable number of
studies on Arabic literature and culture as well
as translations in the form of anthologies or
individual works both in the US and the UK.
In 1992, Jayyusi initiated the East-West Nexus
project to work hand in hand with PROTA in
disseminating the history, literature, and
culture of the Arabs in the English speaking
world. This initiative by Jayyusi was mainly to
allow PROTA to focus exclusively on
translating Arabic literature.
The field of Arabic fiction translation into
English was influenced by agents located
outside the English speaking world. The
contributions of two publishers in particular
were noteworthy with regard to the
development of the field. These were The
General Egyptian Book Organization (GEBO)
and The American University in Cairo Press
(AUCP). Each published a series of
translations of modern Arabic fiction.
Perceiving translation as a means of
promoting a better understanding of the Arab
culture, GEBO, a state owned and run
publisher, initiated its Contemporary Arabic
Series in the 1970s (http://www.gebo.gov.eg/).
Most of the translations produced by GEBO
were, however, for Egyptian fiction writers,
and the translations themselves were primarily
carried out or revised by Egyptians. Although
the initiative was called off in 2002, and the
translations were hard to obtain outside Egypt,
the 75 titles published by GEBO constituted a
significant addition to the repertoire of
translated Arabic, albeit mostly Egyptian,
fictional works available in English.
The other agent in the field was the American
University in Cairo Press. Through its project
Arabic Literature in Translation, the AUCP
has managed to produce a stream of
translations of fictional works from across the
Arab world. The influence of AUCP on the
field was not restricted to the process of
selecting works for translation; it also
influenced the translation process itself. AUCP
had its own translation methodology which
50
The Reality of Arabic Fiction Translation into English: A Sociological Approach
demanded that
engaged in translating a single book. An Arab
translator would do a preliminary rendering,
which would be followed by other translators
with different degrees of experience adding
-Davies, 2007).
This new mode of production caused tension
in the field and was contested by other agents.
Johnson-
writer to write a book, it should not require
(Johnson-Davies, 2007).
Although AUCP started its Arabic literature
translation project in 1972, it did not possess
the means to produce books; therefore, it was
forced to forge partnership agreements with
other publishers in the US and the UK, in
particular with Heinemann and Three
Continents Press. It is argued here that due to
the internal dynamics of the field of Arabic
fiction translation into English, key players,
e.g., Heinemann, Three Continents Press, and
the AUCP, had to resort to cooperation and
consolidation between themselves to
strengthen and expand the boundaries of the
field. However, this trend changed after the
Nobel Prize in 1988, which in turn led to the
rise of other forms of capital in the field, as
will be discussed later. This may be
interpreted as a critique to concept
of field which is premised on the idea of
struggle between agents, and would
consequently raise the question; could co-
operation rather than confrontation provide the
dynamics of any field of activity?
The first outcome of this cooperation was the
Miramar
(1978). The novel was translated by Fatma
Moussa, and revised by Maged El-Kommos
and John Rodenbeck, who was then the
director of the AUCP. In order to get the
, and to add some symbolic value to
the translation, Rodenbeck asked the British
novelist John Fowles to write the introduction
to the translation (Jobbins, 2002).
It should be noted here that prior to Mahfouz
being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1988 the
AUCP did not take an active interest in
translating Arabic fiction into English.
Rodenbeck was once quoted by Christopher
something that is going to be read by
. Despite the many
question marks surrounding its monopolising
of the market of modern Arabic fiction in
English translation, it has played a pivotal role
in shaping the field and is now a publishing
giant in the field of translating Arabic fiction:
owning exclusive worldwide publication rights
of works penned by Mahfouz and whoever
wins the AUCP Mahfouz Medal for Literature.
Büchler and Guthrie (2011, p. 24) quoted Paul
Starkey, a prominent translator and professor
of Arabic at Durham University stating that:
AUCP a frustrating organisation to
work with in some respects, and with
miserable rates of pay, but still
commendable in many respects, in terms
of making available a body of literature
money out of.
The role played by niche publishers who
emerged during this phase both in the UK and
the US was instrumental in introducing
modern Arabic fiction to the English speaking
world. The London-based Quartet Books and
Saqi Publications, owned by people from the
Arab world, published translations of
important Arabic fiction works, some of which
were authored by previously unknown writers
from across the region. In the US, it was Three
Continents Press and Biblioteca Islamica who
played a major role in and contributed
significantly to establishing the postulated
field of Arabic fiction translation into English.
5. The Post-Nobel Phase (1988-2001)
Awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to
Naguib Mahfouz in 1988 marked a turning
point in the history of the field of Arabic
fiction translation into English. The award
brought a wide international attention to
Arabic literature in general, and for the first
time since the emergence of the field, Arabic
fiction was the focus of a worldwide interest.
According to Altoma (2005, p. 57), the post-
Nobel phase was
. The number of new English
translations of Arabic fiction, as well as
51
A. W. Khalifa & A. Elgindy / International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 2(2), 2014 ISSN 2329-2210
reprints of existing works rose rapidly and
consistently as a result of the increasing
market demand. The field, also, witnessed a
change in the mode of production during this
period. After an initial period when translation
of Arabic fiction was entirely dependent on
individual enterprises and personal contacts,
mainstream publishers started to become
aware of the significant literary merit and
potential commercial value of translated
Arabic fiction. This realization resulted in a
new struggle in the field in the form of
competition over securing publishing rights of
Arabic fiction works, needless to say,
especially that of Mahfouz himself. The
Award seems to have (re)ignited the interest of
many university presses in this developing
intellectual field. Perceiving it as a field
worthy of investment, new niche publishers
competed for a share in the field and began
promoting and translating Arabic fiction in the
Anglo-American world.
Prior to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature
fictional works were translated into English.
Outside the Arab world, he was only known to
specialists in Arabic literature (Altoma, 1990),
who later were instrumental in helping
Mahfouz reach a wide international
recognition. Mahfouz himself testifies to this
fact by admitting that
translations that publishers became acquainted
with my works, translating them to other
languages. I am certain they were among the
most important factors contributing to my
2002).
When Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize,
(Mahfouz, 1988). However, after the award,
the translations of his literary works, that had
laid for so long at the periphery of the field of
world literature leaped to the centre as they
enjoyed a sudden broad international appeal.
The position of translated Arabic fiction
experienced a sudden upturn due to the
unprecedented public as well as institutional
demand. This in turn led many publishers to
invest time and effort to secure the translation
rights and publish the works of many Arabic
fiction writers, particularly those of Mahfouz.
It was in 1985 that the AUCP signed an
exclusive foreign rights agreement with
Johnson-
Davies, 2007). Following Ma
the Nobel Prize in 1988, and in catering for the
increasing demand for translation, and by
means of cutting translation costs, the AUCP
was fast to forge a partnership with
Doubleday, to whom AUCP sold the English
translation rights of fif
works. The niche publishers who ventured into
the market, in the UK and the US, and who
have earlier grappled to keep a limited
repertoire of translated fictional works in print,
were made
controllers of corporate publishing, who
"discovered" Mahfouz [in particular, and
Arabic fiction in general] after the Nobel Prize
and insisted upon their exclusive rights to his
emergence of a new form of capital, i.e.,
symbolic capital, subjected the field to a new
phase of struggle between the agents over this
new capital after the Nobel Prize. In other
words, translators and publishers competing
symbolic capital attached to his name as a
Nobel Prize Laureate. This, in turn, would
have its implications on the field in terms of
the economic capital that could be realized.
This phase constituted, as Allen (2003, p. 3)
publication of modern Arabic literature in
general and Arabic fiction in particular. In the
US, small publishing houses, like Interlink, as
well as several university presses and
programs, started to publish several series
dedicated to translations of Arabic fiction. The
efforts of various university presses such as
UT Austin, Arkansas, Columbia, Syracuse,
California, and Minnesota helped the
circulation of Arabic fiction translations. They
have indeed played a pivotal role in
disseminating Arabic fiction in the
with a high reputation in their countries to
In the UK, several niche independent
publishers emerged and began working side by
side with Saqi Publications and Quartet Books
in producing a significant amount of
52
The Reality of Arabic Fiction Translation into English: A Sociological Approach
translations featuring Arabic fiction writers
from most part of the Arab world. Among
those publishers are Garnet Press, Haus Arabia
Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Swallow
Books. These small publishing houses have
helped the field of translating Arabic fiction
maintain some degree of autonomy and
consequently attain its present degree of
recognition in the Anglophone world. They
have also played an invaluable role in keeping
the repertoire of translated Arabic fiction alive
by making it accessible to the English reading
audience.
In 1988, a landmark initiative was introduced
between the Arab and Anglophone worlds and
to give
,
2013). The initiative was in the form of a
magazine titled Banipal: Magazine for Modern
Arabic Literature. Banipal comprises
translations of short stories, excerpts of novels
and poems as well as other Arabic literature
related material and news. It also publishes
three issues a year, each of them focusing on a
particular country or theme. Since its
foundation, the magazine has played an
effective role in expanding the audience of the
various genres of the Arabic literary tradition.
Interest in Arabic literature/fiction began to
fade away since from the mid-1990s until the
beginning of the twenty-first century. Many
publishers, especially corporate mainstream
ones, started cutting back as they realised that
Arabic fiction was nothing but a temporary
phenomenon. This fact is supported by
1990, p. 278) Embargoed
Literature in which he emphasised that:
discussion without having provoked even the
more venturesome literati into finding out
which other writers in Arabic might be worth
.
6. The Post-9/11 Phase (2001 – Present)
Altoma (1996; 2000; 2005) identified three
phases in the history of translating Arabic
fiction into English. This paper argues for a
fourth phase which could be referred to as the
post-9/11 phase. Identifying this period as a
new phase is justified by the fact that prior to
9/11 there was a downward trend in the
volume of activity of translating Arabic fiction
on the part of the publishers, and lack of
interest in translated Arabic fiction on the part
of readers.
Since the stimulus given to the field by
awarding the Nobel Prize to Mahfouz in 1988,
it was the events of 9/11 and its aftermath that
re-drew the attention of the Anglo-American
world to the Arab region and its literature.
This period was described by Humphrey
abic
). It was characterised
by a
everything from Arabic provision and uptake
at universities to a growing interest in and
(Büchler & Guthrie, 2011, p. 18). These
statements provide further justification for
identifying this period as a new phase. The
impact 9/11 had on the field of Arabic fiction
translation into English also echoes in the
statement of Davies where he stresses:
That probably is the biggest thing. It has
had an effect. The Middle East is always
in our screens, if not in our faces. People
do want to understand more, how does
that part of the world tick? One would
like, as any intelligent person, to know
what people are thinking. When you
learn it through literature, you
sometimes get a much more intimate, a
way more real sense of what the
.
This phase witnessed an increase in the
number of universities both in the UK and the
US offering a variety of courses under the
. In the UK, the British Council and
the British Centre of Literary Translation
strove to bring Arabic literature/fiction closer
to the UK reading public through translation.
Büchler and Guthrie (2011, p. 18) state that:
Arts Council England funded
translations from Arabic as part of their
provision for publishers, and a UK
publishing delegation visited the Cairo
Book Fair in anticipation of the Arab
53
A. W. Khalifa & A. Elgindy / International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 2(2), 2014 ISSN 2329-2210
World being the market focus at the
London Book Fair and the UK being the
guest of honour at the Cairo Book Fair.
In 2009 the two organisations jointly ran
a landmark Arabic-English literary
translation workshop in Cairo and
supported Beirut 39, a project of the Hay
Telegraph Festival which selected 39
Arab authors under the age of 39 whose
work was translated in a Bloomsbury
anthology of the same name. Latest
initiatives by the British Centre for
Literary Translation have introduced
Arabic in its Summer School for
translators and in its mentorship scheme
started in 2010.
In the US,
government priority, and so there [was] a
pressure to produce students to work in the
Many state
funded initiatives started to emerge as well
Arab world and America. Significant among
these initiatives are the Teachers of Critical
Languages Program (TCLP) and Youth
Exchange and Study program (YES), both
funded by the Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the American
Department of State. Correspondingly, some
American organisations started to initiate
similar initiatives, such as the Fulbright
ng
Assistants program (FLTA). One can
conjecture the relation between these
initiatives and the National Defence and
Education Act of 1958 for both of their
defence
. However, contextually,
this growing interest has naturally
necessitated the availably of Arabic literary
(Aldebyan, 2008, p. 86).
That is, despite the fact that this interest was
described by Sinan Antoon as being a
(Qualey, 2010). These governmental
initiatives illustrate the influence of the field of
power on the field of translation in general and
on the field of translating Arabic fiction in
particular. This is a manifestation of the
the field of translation.
Other geo-political and socio-cultural events,
e.g., the Arab Spring, have sparked a new
surge of interest in the Arab world and its
literature/fiction. Kitto (1968, p. 8) contends,
enlarges the experience of people is
. In order to understand the motives
behind the Arab Spring, the Anglophone
reading public turned to translated Arabic
literature in search for information. These
mainly politically-driven mini-spikes have
contributed in giving a boost to translated
Arabic fiction and continue to have an effect
on the field both internally and externally.
7. Concluding Remarks
The aim of this paper was to investigate the
genesis of Arabic fiction translation into
concepts of field and capital offered us the
opportunity to perceive this cultural product as
a (Hermans, 1997,
p. 10). It also enabled us to understand the
internal and external factors that informed and
conditioned the formation of this intellectual
field.
field it
was possible to situate the English translations
of Arabic fiction within their historical,
political, and socio-cultural contexts. And by
drawing on his concept of capital it was
possible to understand the dynamics of the
field, which is the outcome of the struggle
between the various agents over the capital
available in the field.
The first of the two main findings of this paper
is that it was possible to accurately trace the
first translation of Arabic fiction into English
back to 1908. Although Altoma (2005)
mentioned that prior to 1947 there were very
few translations of Arabic fiction, he was not
able to provide a specific date. This means that
we can now set the initial phase as being
between 1908 and 1967, contrary to the earlier
perceived date of 1947-1967.
The second finding is the identification of a
fourth phase which is referred to as post 9/11
phase. The paper provided the rationale for
identifying it as such, highlighted its
characteristics, and explained its dynamics.
54
The Reality of Arabic Fiction Translation into English: A Sociological Approach
During this phase the field of translating
Arabic fiction into English was mainly
influenced by external factors (the field of
power) while internal factors (translators and
publishers) played a secondary role. In
contrast, during the other three phases the field
was mainly influenced by internal factors
while external factors played a secondary role.
enabled us to unveil the geo-political forces
influencing the field of Arabic fiction
translation into English. Since the field of
fiction translation is influenced by such forces,
and since these forces are ongoing, it is likely
that the field will continue to evolve in
response to the events.
As a result of the findings, English translations
of Arabic fiction should not be perceived
merely as translations, but should also be
interpreted against the backdrop of the
political and socio-historical conditions under
which they are produced and read. Although
the translation of fiction may be thought of as
a literary work, the field of translation itself
and the actual process of translating are
informed and conditioned by factors that fall
outside the realm of literary work.
Furthermore, it is now possible to perceive
Arabic fiction translation into English as a
field in
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