Translation as an Ideological Practice in Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin

Abstract

This paper adopts Mona Baker’s narrative theory to examine the translation of Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin. In her work in English, Abulhawa provides her autonomous account of the story of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The paper uses narrative theory to explore how the translator reframes the conflict by accentuating the parts portraying Palestinians as victims and by changing certain aspects in the representation of the Palestinian culture in Arabic. The researchers detect some patterns of interferences that influence readers’ reception of the Israeli occupation following the  1948 events (The Nakba). The translator seems to bring the text back to its original homeland by making amendments compatible with her own views and with the norms of target Arab readers.