Retro-cultural translation: neutralising cultural capital accumulation and power balance in the context of post-2003 Iraq

Ismael, Dunya (2019). Retro-cultural translation: neutralising cultural capital accumulation and power balance in the context of post-2003 Iraq. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis presents a new perspective on power relations in translation by introducing Retro-cultural Translation (RCT), a concept developed for this work to capture a subtle case of inverse translation of cultural writing. Examined in the Arabic translations of Anglophone books about Iraq following the 2003 war, this concept demonstrates the potential to reverse the power balance on various levels. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, the study argues that the language and the cultural aspects the RCT texts consist of are owned by the native culture. It contends that such a possession of capital can allow this type of translation to disrupt the cultural capital gain that some scholars claim to flow from English, the dominant language, into other peripheral languages, Arabic in this case. RCT in the context of the US-led war against Iraq materialises in three levels of dominance: that of English over Arabic, of the source text over the target text, and of the invader over the invaded. By integrating a postcolonial perspective into cultural translation paradigms, this study attempts to demonstrate if these relations could be reversed and, hence, whether the accumulation of cultural capital is inactivated.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):