Speeches of a King: Translation as Narration

Abstract

The use of Narrative Theory to analyze translations and to investigate how the act of translation affects the construction, reconstruction, and circulation of narratives is a current trend. This paper scrutinizes the counter-terrorism narratives constructed in the speeches of King Abdullah II of Jordan, by drawing on Baker's (2005) theory that all translations embed narratives promoting peace or violence. This scrutinization does not compare English and Arabic stretches of those speeches. Rather, it is an attempt to identify the stakes related to constructing, reconstructing and circulating those narratives. The framework of the narrative theory and the features of narratives: relationality, causal emplotment, selective appropriation, and temporality, have been used to examine the 29 speeches delivered by the king between 2014 and 2020. The study reveals that the king’s motivations for constructing his counter-terrorism narratives were to counter the existing misrepresentations of Islam perpetrated by both the media and terrorist groups and to construct alternative positive narratives.