Edward Said: Narrativity and Paratextual Framing

A number of studies have examined Edward Said’s intellectual and political legacy, both in the West and in the Arab World, from various perspectives. This study sets out to examine a largely neglected aspect of the ways in which this legacy has been and continues to be mediated, namely how Edward Said was (re)narrated in the Arab World by various types of institutions and mediators, focusing specifically on Arabic translations of his works. A considerable number of narrators and (re)narrators have been involved in the process of introducing Said and his work in the Arab World. They include cultural institutions such as the Arab academy, the media and publishing houses as well as intellectuals, writers and some seventeen translators. These are examined in some detail. Most of Said’s works have been translated into Arabic; some were translated twice, and some three times. A subset of these translations forms the core of this study. The focus here is on the two linguistic and cultural universes that Said inhabited and that shaped his thinking – namely English (and the US) on the one hand, and Arabic (and the Arab World – specifically, Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon) on the other, and the assumption is that the sensitive nature of historical and cultural interaction between these two universes means that Said’s interventions at the literary, cultural and political levels are likely to have been subject to different types of framing and counter-framing on the part of those who mediated his presence in the region, including translators and publishers of translations. The study draws on narrative theory, the concept of framing and the work of Genette to examine forms of mediation through the paratexts that accompanied the Arabic translations of Edward Said’s Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism by Kamal Abu Deeb, and the retranslations of Orientalism and Covering Islam by Muhammad Enani. The paratexts examined consist of the components of the front cover of each translation, including images, the components of the back cover, and prefaces and introductions by each translator. Some discursive strategies within the translation proper are also discussed where relevant as framing devices.