Popular Fiction, Translation and the Nahda in Egypt

Description

This book is a critical study of the translation and adaptation of popular fiction into Arabic at the turn of the twentieth century. It examines the ways in which the Egyptian nahda discourse with its emphasis on identity, authenticity and renaissance suppressed various forms of cultural and literary creation emerging from the encounter with European genres as well as indigenous popular literary forms and languages. The book explores the multiple and fluid translation practices of this period as a form of ‘unauthorized’ translation that was not invested in upholding nationalist binaries of originality and imitation. Instead, translators experimented with radical and complex forms of adaptation that turned these binaries upside down. Through a series of close readings of novels published in the periodical The People’s Entertainments, the book explores the nineteenth century literary, intellectual, juridical and economic histories that are constituted through translation, and outlines a comparative method of reading that pays particular attention to the circulation of genre across national borders. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction (Samah Selim)....Pages 1-20 Bad Books for Bad Readers (Samah Selim)....Pages 21-46 The People’s Entertainments (Samah Selim)....Pages 47-69 The Things of the Time: Cairo at the Turn of the Century (Samah Selim)....Pages 71-95 New Women and Novel Characters (Samah Selim)....Pages 97-133 Fiction and Colonial Identities (Samah Selim)....Pages 135-156 Pharaoh’s Revenge (Samah Selim)....Pages 157-172 The Mysteries of Cairo (Samah Selim)....Pages 173-199 Back Matter ....Pages 201-232