Nowhere in Her Homeland

While there is a wealth of research on Assia Djebar’s francophone texts, including their translation into other languages, there are very few studies looking into how these texts have fared in Arabic translation. To address this gap, this article first investigates the reception of Assia Djebar’s oeuvre in the Arabic literary field by drawing on Petra Broomans and Esther Jiresch’s model of cultural transfer. Adopting Kinga Klaudy and Pál Heltai’s (2020) typology of cultural back-translation, it then analyzes the Arabic translation of Djebar’s last novel, Nulle part dans la maison de mon père (2007). Analysis reveals that most of Djebar’s works remain in a prolonged “quarantine,” indicating an incomplete transfer. Even in cases of successful cultural transfer, foreignizing discursive choices made by the translator further alienate the writer’s voice. The article argues that two antagonistic forces contribute to this marginalization: the consecration of Arab women writers in the West, which often entails misappropriation of these writers’ texts to reinforce Orientalist narratives; and the construction of women in the Arab world as symbols of their nations who are, thus, expected to act as guardians of their nations’ values

Arabic · French · Homeland · Misappropriation · Orientalism · Typology · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Middle East Politics and Society · North African History and Literature