I’ve become aware, from browsing in francophone bookstores here, that considerably more Arabic literature seems to be available in French translation than in English. French, not English, was and is a more common second language in many parts of the Arab world, especially in Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria -- and the historical, academic, literary, and political connections continue. The first language for translation of major works often seems to be French. Many prominent Arab writers (especially from the Christian communities in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon) who have left the Middle East (or who maintain two households) have emigrated to Paris rather than to London or New York.
An article by Hala Halim in Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo) discusses the translation of Arabic literature into western languages, based on an interview with Roger Allen, a British-born professor and translator of Arabic who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Several issues are brought up here, but the most interesting is that as a by-product of the trend for translators to know and work with the authors (as opposed to the former practice where translation usually occurred without any contact at all), translators have encountered pressure from book publishers and sellers to make editorial changes in the original text. The result can be books which have undergone substantial changes from their original Arabic form. Another issue concerns the status of Arabic literature studies in American universities. After the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1988, interest in Arabic literature courses increased, and after 9/11 there was another jump in interest, both in language courses and in Arabic studies in general. However, the author says:
after Mahfouz's Nobel "the availability of a much larger repertoire of translated Arabic texts -- and in most literary genres -- means that it is now possible to offer a variety of courses under the general heading of 'Arabic literature in translation'." But when the conversation turns to the future of Middle Eastern Studies in the US and the pressures brought to bear on it post-9/11 by, for example, the neoconservative Campus Watch web site which monitors and seeks to stifle dissenting voices in the field, Allen is far from optimistic. He mentions, nonchalantly, that he was recently quoted on Campus Watch: "my 'sin' is to say that I think that the American government and the American academy have different views about the way to embrace Arabic studies, and that people making decisions on that level are not qualified to make them...
If you discover the existence of a French translation of Munif's Ard al-Sawad (discussed at LH here: http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001301.php ), please let me know!
Posted by: language hat | April 11, 2006 at 02:46 PM
I tried to leave a comment asking you to let me know if you hear of a French translation of Munif's Ard al-Sawad, but apparently it didn't post successfully. Let's see if this does.
Posted by: language hat | April 12, 2006 at 08:59 AM