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

Abstract

The thesis attempts an investigation of intertextuality. Intertextuality challenges the conventional view of the author as the sole creator of text. It embraces the interdependence of texts upon each other. Furthermore, intertextuality welcomes in a new partner in the process of decoding literature, the reader. The thesis pursues a parallel contrastive analysis of two source texts: Azazeel and Rama and the Dragon, vis-à-vis their translations and zooms in further on translational attitudes towards intertextuality by comparing and contrasting the strategies employed by all three translators. The analytical investigation leads to an important finding pertinent to the argument that intertextuality can be a proactive modus operandi of literary translation rather than a stylistic property of literary texts. The inherent wealth of interpretation underlying it can help translators rediscover the potential of the practice, encourage them to challenge typical conceptions of textuality, and motivate them to explore unconventional techniques of rendition.