scholarly journals Re-representing the Self: Saudi Translators’ Doxic Peritextual Practice of Deconstructing Orientalists’ Writings about Arabia [1]

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimah Hamad Alharthi

This paper explores the Saudis’ employment of translation to let their country speak for itself and undermine the Orientalists’ ability to represent Saudi Arabia. The paper serves as an attempt to fill two gaps; presenting Saudi identity from a Saudi perspective and examining the Saudi translators’ agency. To fill these gaps, the following question is raised: what is the role of the Saudi translators when translating Orientalists’ accounts about Arabia to reconstruct the image of Saudi Arabia? The paper aims to examine the prevailing practices of Saudi translators of Orientalists’ writings about Arabia into Arabic. The paper adopts Bourdieu’s apparatus of doxa, and Genette’s conception of peritexts to analyze the practices of three Saudi academics/translators in Saudi History; namely, ‘Abd Allah Al ‘Askar, ‘Abd Allah Al-‘Uthaymīn, and ‘Uwaīdah Al Juhany. The argued misrepresentation of Saudi Arabia within Orientalists’ writings led Saudi academics/translators to adopt deconstruction as a doxic critique in the peritexts of their TTs to reconstruct the image of the Self (i.e., Saudi Arabia), and hence overturn the Other’s (i.e., Orientalists’) narratives. Owing to the Saudi academics/translators’ ability to compare historical sources and evaluate Orientalists’ assumptions about the Kingdom, one of the rules of the game is that deconstruction is practiced by these academics. Saudi academics/translators perceive such a practice as a national service, considering that, through their peritexts, they grant Saudi Arabia an opportunity to represent itself through its own voice. This doxic practice presents Saudi translators, not as servants of the STs, but rather as authors, with something to say about their national identity.

Author(s):  
Dimah Hamad Alharthi

This paper explores the Saudis’ employment of translation to let their country speak for itself and undermine the Orientalists’ ability to represent Saudi Arabia. The paper serves as an attempt to fill two gaps; presenting Saudi identity from a Saudi perspective and examining the Saudi translators’ agency. To fill these gaps, the following question is raised: what is the role of the Saudi translators when translating Orientalists’ accounts about Arabia to reconstruct the image of Saudi Arabia? The paper aims to examine the prevailing practices of Saudi translators of Orientalists’ writings about Arabia into Arabic. The paper adopts Bourdieu’s apparatus of doxa, and Genette’s conception of peritexts to analyze the practices of three Saudi academics/translators in Saudi History; namely, ‘Abd Allah Al ‘Askar, ‘Abd Allah Al-‘Uthaymīn, and ‘Uwaīdah Al Juhany. The argued misrepresentation of Saudi Arabia within Orientalists’ writings led Saudi academics/translators to adopt deconstruction as a doxic critique in the peritexts of their TTs to reconstruct the image of the Self (i.e., Saudi Arabia), and hence overturn the Other’s (i.e., Orientalists’) narratives. Owing to the Saudi academics/translators’ ability to compare historical sources and evaluate Orientalists’ assumptions about the Kingdom, one of the rules of the game is that deconstruction is practiced by these academics. Saudi academics/translators perceive such a practice as a national service, considering that, through their peritexts, they grant Saudi Arabia an opportunity to represent itself through its own voice. This doxic practice presents Saudi translators, not as servants of the STs, but rather as authors, with something to say about their national identity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Brooks ◽  
Adam Leaver ◽  
Michelle Spence ◽  
Christopher T Elliott ◽  
Moira Dean

The academic discussion of power in supply chains has changed from a discussion of the use of coercive power to one which emphasizes the role of trust in embedding co-operation and disincentivizing opportunism. Whilst a number of empirical studies have suggested the former is alive and well, this paper argues that power relations may also be constituted by the self-perceptions of weaker actors as much as by the explicit actions of more powerful ones. This study explores the role of power through the perceptions of subjugated actors, which set the ‘rules of the game’. Our case centres on perceptions of Northern Irish beef farmers and their reflections on their ‘powerlessness’ in relation to the larger, more consolidated processors that they sell to. We find that the way farmers make sense of the power relations they encounter is influenced by the individuating character of the power relations exercised by the processors, which debilitates their ability to collaborate and resist collectively. What emerges is a story about the process of accommodation whereby farmers pragmatically resign themselves to play by ‘the rules of the game’ to remain ‘part of the game’.


2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-130
Author(s):  
Ferenc L. Lendvai

According to a generally accepted conception, members of a nation foster their national identity through assorting their memories of the past, elaborating and preserving their symbols collectively. We have to look for the original unity forming the basis of national unity either in the cohesive force of common origin and residence, or in the self‐conscious contracts of the individuals, or in both. The European Union as such does not have sovereignty; those of the Member States overrule its legislative and executive institutions. Perhaps we can speak about the European Union as a community on a cultural basis. This will raise the question of multiculturalism. Recently an interesting polemic has been developing on the concept and role of Leitkultur. In antiquity the Imperium Romanum, in the Middle Ages the Republica Christiana seem to have been the multicultural forerunners of the European Union.


2018 ◽  
pp. 529-538
Author(s):  
Jeffrey J Smith

In a remote part of Africa, a boundary marker can be found where the frontiers of Algeria, Mauritania, and Western Sahara meet. It marks the entry to the liberated zone of the Saharawi people’s homeland and presumptive state. The marker is a reminder of the role of territory in modern international law and law’s unfinished business of the self-determination of colonized peoples. The role of territory and boundaries in international law is considered. The paradoxes in law of the particular circumstances of a partly occupied Western Sahara, where its people constitute themselves both as national liberation movement and state, are addressed. The idea of national identity informing a desired marking of terrestrial space with certainty is explored. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the role of the border in a Westphalian system of law.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Donnelly ◽  
Radmila Prislin ◽  
Ryan Nicholls
Keyword(s):  

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Ramona Bobocel ◽  
Russell E. Johnson ◽  
Joel Brockner

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Chambers ◽  
Nick Epley ◽  
Paul Windschitl
Keyword(s):  

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