Intertextuality in Literary Translation: Edwar al-Kharrat’s Rama and the Dragon and Youssef Ziedan’s Azazeel

Abstract

Intertextuality enables and complicates translation, preventing it from being an untroubled communication and opening the translated text to interpretive possibilities that vary with cultural constituencies in the receiving situation. To activate these possibilities and at the same time improve the study and practice of translation, we must work to theorize the relative autonomy of the translated text and increase the self-consciousness of translators and readers of translations alike. (pp. 172-173) Intertextuality is perceived to be problematic. Translating this feature of literary texts transcends the mere transfer of words. The literary translator has to assume the roles of both a code analyst and an intercultural moderator. Failure to grasp the implications intended in the intertextual part will lose the translator the meaningful crux of the message. Furthermore, the difficulty with intertextuality lies in its cultural specificity. The confidence of the writer to add on to the literary content, sure that the reader will succeed in deciphering the code, based on their shared knowledge of the same culture, is disrupted when that text is exported to a different culture. The translator, then, is faced with risks of creating intercultural misunderstandings or hindering communication altogether should he fall short of honouring his role as a negotiator of languages and cultures. Intertextuality may yet constitute a third obstacle when a literary translator is unaware of an intertextual use of language or if the intertext is incorporated without any marks. Then, the meaning of the message intended will be incomplete and the desired effect will be lost. The present thesis explores how both target texts, under study, address this problem. The study also investigates a significant notion pertinent to whether the translator is actually dealing with simply loaned texts that require only a literal translation or with a whole range of new meanings uploaded/ added to the text, hence demanding a different approach. It further probes how far translators are aware of the role of intertextuality in a literary work and how much effort they invest into realizing it; hence, how far welcoming is the target text and readers of the imported intertextuality. To this end, the thesis pursues a dual contrastive analysis of: (1) Ziedan’s Azazeel versus Wright’s translation; and (2) al-Kharrat’s Rama and the Dragon versus Ghazoul and Verlenden’s translation. The analy