The Role of the Arab "Intellectual" and Power Relations in the Translation of Aid ila Haifa and Rabi' Harr

Abstract

As the twentieth century turned into the twenty-first century, counter discourses emerged to challenge orientalism, colonialism, postcolonialism, capitalism, and globalization in cultural studies. Frequently bound up with culture and politics, the Arab “intellectual” effectively criticizes issues important to the Arab world. Drawing on this viewpoint, this paper examines the intellectual’s social and political role in Ghassan Kanafani’s Aid ila Haifa, translated into English as Returning to Haifa (2000) by Karen Riley, and Sahar Khalifeh’s Rabi' Harr, translated into English as The End of Spring (2008) by Paula Haydar. Edward Said’s ideas about the “intellectual”, “secular criticism”, “origins and beginnings” are the framework used to understand the intellectual’s role in writing-as-action and calling for necessary change. Whenever there is intellectuality, there are power relations entrenched in language. Insofar as the two Arabic originals are read in translation as well, and due to the rise of the cultural turn in translation studies, this paper, correspondingly, considers choices/contributions made by the translators that serve to align the “intellectual” with his/her orientation in the English versions, thus actively exercising a sort of language power that responds to the dominant discourse. The paper reveals that foreignization in the form of literalness, hybridity, and cultural mediation serve the “intellectual” in the translation culture.