Over the last three decades, many women and men who were political prisoners in the Middle East have come to Canada as immigrants and refugees. In their countries of origin, they resisted oppressive social policies, ideologies, and various forms of state violence. Their journeys of forced migration/exile took them away from their country, families, and friends, but they arrived in Canada with memories of violence, resistance and survival. These former political prisoners did not want the sacrifices that they and their colleagues had made to be forgotten. They needed to find effective ways to communicate these stories. This research was conducted from a critical feminist‒anti-racist perspective, and used life history research to trace the journey of one such group of women and men. This group of former political prisoners has been meeting together, using art as a mode of expression to share their experiences, inviting others to join their resistance against state violence. Interviews were conducted with former political prisoners and their supporters and artist facilitators who were part of the art workshops, performances, and exhibits held in Toronto, Canada from January 2010 through December 2011. This dissertation examines the importance of memory projects and of remembering in acts of public testimony and the significance of providing spaces for others to bear witness to those stories. This research also contributes to the body of knowledge about the role that remembering, consciousness, and praxis play in individual and community recovery, rebuilding community, and continued resistance.

Cette recherche examine la traduction et la réception en France, en Grande Bretagne et aux États-Unis de la littérature contemporaine d’expression arabe écrite par des femmes, afin de répondre à deux questions principales: comment les écrivaines provenant de pays arabes perdent-elles leur agentivité dans les processus de traduction et de réception? Et comment la traduction et la réception de leurs textes contribuent-elles à la construction d’une altérité arabe? Pour y répondre, l’auteure examine trois romans présentant des traits thématiques et formels très différents, à savoir Fawḍā al-Ḥawāss (1997) par Ahlem Mosteghanemi, Innahā Lundun Yā ‘Azīzī (2001) par Hanan al-Shaykh et Banāt al-Riyāḍ (2005) par Rajaa Alsanea. L’analyse, basée sur le modèle à trois dimensions de Norman Fairclough, vise à découvrir comment les écrivaines expriment leur agentivité à travers l’écriture, et quelles images elles projettent d’elles-mêmes et plus généralement des femmes dans leurs sociétés respectives. L’auteure se penche ensuite sur les traductions anglaise et française de chaque roman. Elle examine les déplacements qui s’opèrent principalement sur le plan de la texture et le plan pragma-sémiotique, et interroge en quoi ces déplacements ébranlent l’autorité des écrivaines. Enfin, une étude de la réception de ces traductions en France, en Grande Bretagne et aux États-Unis vient enrichir l’analyse textuelle. À cette étape, les critiques éditoriales et universitaires ainsi que les choix éditoriaux relatifs au paratexte sont scrutés de façon à mettre en lumière les processus décisionnels, les discours et les tropes sous-tendant la mise en marché et la consommation de ces traductions. L’analyse des originaux révèle tout d’abord qu’à travers leurs textes, les auteures sont des agentes actives de changement social. Elles s’insurgent, chacune à sa manière, contre les discours hégémoniques tant locaux qu’occidentaux, et (ré-)imaginent leurs sociétés et leurs nations. Ce faisant, elles se créent leur propre espace discursif dans la sphère publique. Toutefois, la thèse montre que dans la plupart des traductions, les discours dissidents sont neutralisés, l’agentivité et la subjectivité des écrivaines minées au profit d’un discours dominant orientaliste. Ce même discours semble sous-tendre la réception des romans en traduction. Dans ce discours réifiant, l’expression de la différence culturelle est inextricablement imbriquée dans l’expression de la différence sexuelle: la « femme arabe » est la victime d’une religion islamique et d’une culture arabe essentiellement misogynes et arriérées. L’étude suggère, cependant, que ce sont moins les interventions des traductrices que les décisions des éditeurs, le travail de médiation opéré par les critiques, et l’intérêt (ou le désintérêt) des universitaires qui influencent le plus la manière dont ces romans sont mis en marché et reçus dans les nouveaux contextes. L’auteure conclut par rappeler l’importance d’une éthique de la traduction qui transcende toute approche binaire et se fonde sur une lecture éthique des textes qui fait ressortir le lien entre la poétique et la politique. Enfin, elle propose une lecture basée sur la reconnaissance du caractère situé du texte traduit comme du sujet lisant/traduisant. / The present research explores the translation and reception in France, the UK and the US of contemporary Arabic literature by women authors, with a view to answering two main questions that have gone largely unexplored within translation studies: how do women authors from Arab countries lose their agency and subjectivity in the process of translation? And how do the translation of their dissident writings contribute to the construction of an Arab alterity? To answer these questions, the research analyzes three Arabic novels authored by women, and chosen for their very different thematic and formal characteristics, namely Ahlem Mosteghanemi’s Fawḍā al-Ḥawāss (1997), Hanan al-Shaykh’s Innahā Lundun Yā ‘Azīzī (2001), and Rajaa Alsanea’s Banāt al-Riyāḍ (2005). Using Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, the analysis aims to explore the way these authors express their agency through their texts, as well as the images they depict of themselves and of women, in general, in their respective societies/communities. The English and French translations of each novel are then compared to the original with a view to identifying patterns of textural and pragma-semiotic shifts in the translations, and gaining insight into how these shifts undermine the author’s voice and agency. Finally, the analysis moves to the various practices involved in the reception of these translations in the US, the UK and France. Publishers’ decisions, editorial reviews and academic discourse are investigated with a view to identifying patterns in publishers’ decision-making and shedding light on the discourses and tropes undergirding the reception and consumption of these translations in their target contexts. Analysis of the originals reveals that the authors act as agents of change through their texts. They contest, each in her own way, both local and Western dominant discourses, and (re)imagine their societies and nations in the process. In so doing, they carve out their own discursive spaces in the public sphere and open breaches for social change. However, the research shows that in several of the translations, the authors’ agency is undermined and their dissident discourses are backgrounded while an orientalist discourse is foregrounded. This same reifying discourse appears to underpin the reception of the novels in translation, as well. It is a reifying discourse wherein the representation of cultural difference seems to be inextricably imbricated in the representation of sexual difference: the “Arab woman” is (re)written as voiceless and powerless because of an Islamic religion and an Arab culture that are essentially misogynistic and backward. Nevertheless, analysis reveals that publishers’ decisions, reviewers mediation and scholarly interest (or disinterest) impinge upon the way these novels are received and consumed more significantly than do translators through their interventions. Finally, the research underscores the importance of an ethical translation that transcends binary approaches and highlights the link between the aesthetic and the political. It also proposes an ethics of reading based on awareness of the situatedness of both the translated text and the reading/translating subject.

Mon projet porte sur le concept de marginalité dans trois romans, Al-Riwayah (Le Roman) de Nawal El Saadawi, Les Intranquilles d’Azza Filali et Jeux de rubans d’Emna Belhaj Yahia. L’étude la marginalité « femme », plus que toute autre marginalité, nous renseigne sur les orientations d’une société, sur ses aspirations et nous informe des dynamiques qui la travaillent. Dans ce sens, le marginal « sert de miroir à la société » (Barel). Il s’agit de voir ce que la marginalité femme fait des normes sociales qui l’infériorisent, qui font d’elle une marginalité, c’est-à-dire un objet visible mais tenu à l’écart. La marginalité « femme » chez Nawal El Saadawi, Azza Filali et Emna Belhaj Yahia parvient-elle à rejeter d’emblée les normes qui sont à l’origine de sa mise à l’écart ? Est-il possible d’envisager un processus d’autonomisation à partir des normes existantes ? Mon hypothèse est qu’il ne suffit pas de se réapproprier les normes sociales de sorte à s’affirmer à l’intérieur des traditions établies. Dans les trois romans étudiés, les traditions qui cautionnent certaines normes et pratiques sociales finissent par être rejetées. Il ne suffit pas d’« élargir » les normes sociales et de multiplier les analyses et interprétations des textes qui cautionnent certaines idées qui sont à l’origine de la mise à l’écart des « femmes » et autres groupes sociaux et minorités. L’individu doit être en mesure d’envisager une existence qui lui est propre sans avoir à se référer aux traditions héritées. Dans les trois romans étudiés, la marginalité « femme », pour envisager une existence libérée des contraintes du groupe, doit défaire la norme, c’est-à-dire redéfinir ce qui est de l’ordre des priorités pour elle et remettre en cause les idées reçues. Je pars du présupposé butlérien selon lequel la norme est à la fois une nécessité et une contrainte. La norme sert à définir les rapports entre individus et à organiser les activités. C’est ce qui organise aussi la vie en commun. Il n’y a pas d’existence à l’extérieur de la norme (Butler). Le marginal doit subvertir la norme, être dans la norme et à l’extérieur de celle-ci. Il s’adapte mais ne se conforme pas. S’il envisage de se constituer en tant que sujet grâce à la norme et à partir de la norme, l’individu doit avant tout admettre que la norme lui confisque sa liberté et son libre-arbitre. Il doit reconnaître que l’initiative individuelle est prohibée par les normes de groupe. Les frontières entre la marginalité et son opposé, la normalité, sont mouvantes. C’est dans cette perspective que des changements sociaux peuvent être envisagés. Des interactions entre la marginalité et la société « normale » ont lieu. La marginalité qui était socialement visible et spatialement localisable devient diffuse. Les divisions entre le centre, lieu de concentration des activités et lieu central dans l’espace, et la périphérie, lieu d’exclusion, et entre normalité et marginalité sont remises en cause. L’individu de la marge et celui de la société « normale » ont en réalité les mêmes préoccupations. / My project explores the concept of marginalization in three novels: Al-Riwâyah (Nawal El Saadawi), Les Intranquilles (Azza Filali) and Jeux de rubans (Emna Belhaj Yahia). The study of these novels shows that the marginalization of women (more so than the study of any other marginalized group) reveals society’s aspirations, the direction society is headed in and the dynamics that drives it. In essence, this marginalized group mirrors society (Barel). I concentrate on the way in which women are marginalized by societal norms, the very norms that ensure women are lesser beings and how they are viewed by society. Can the marginalized women in El Saadawi, Filali and Yahia’s novels succeed in rejecting the norms that place them on the outskirts of society? Do the existing norms allow for a process of empowerment? My contention is that taking ownership of societal norms is not enough. In each of the three novels in question, traditions that uphold certain norms and social practices are rejected by the women characters. It takes more than an “extension” (Butler) of social norms and analyses of notions that contribute to the exclusion of women and other minorities to create transformation. The individual must be capable of imagining his/her own place in society without having to remain bounded by inherited traditions. In these three novels, the marginalized women redefine their priorities and question convention, thus tearing down norms in order to visualize a role free from the constraints of the majority. I argue that norms are shown in these novels to be both necessary and restrictive (Butler). Societal norms define relationships and common activities. They add structure to the community. The marginalized individuals and groups must topple the norms all the while existing both inside and outside those norms. They adapt but do not conform. If the marginalized wishes to challenge and change existing norms, s/he must first admit that norms prevent him or her from enjoying freedom and free will. S/He must recognize that individual initiative is outlawed by societal norms. The boundaries between the margins and mainstream society can shift. Unexpected interactions between marginalized individuals and groups and what is known as the mainstream can occur. Minority groups and the majority can share the same concerns. If social changes have to take place, it will be due to the involvement of all of the social groups.

No description available.

Based on a broad survey of the reception of Firdausī’s Shāhnāma in medieval times, this dissertation argues that Firdausī’s oeuvre was primarily perceived as a book of wisdom and advice for kings and courtly élites. The medieval reception of the Shāhnāma is clearly manifested in the comments of medieval authors about Firdausī and his work, and in their use of the Shāhnāma in the composition of their own works. The production of ikhtiyārāt-i Shāhnāmas (selections from the Shāhnāma) in medieval times and the remarkable attention of the authors of mirrors for princes to Firdausī’s opus are particularly illuminating in this regard. The survey is complemented by a close textual reading of the Ardashīr cycle in the Shāhnāma in comparison with other medieval historical accounts about Ardashīr, in order to illustrate how history in the Shāhnāma is reduced to only a framework for the presentation of ideas and ideals of kingship. Based on ancient Persian beliefs regarding the ideal state of the world, I argue that Ardashīr in the Shāhnāma is represented as a Saviour of the world. Within this context, I offer new interpretations of the symbolic tale of Ardashīr’s fight against a giant worm, and explain why the idea of the union of kingship and religion, a major topic in almost all medieval Persian mirrors for princes, has often been attributed to Ardashīr. Finally, I compare the Ardashīr cycle in the Shāhnāma with nine medieval Persian mirrors for princes to demonstrate that the ethico-political concepts contained in them, as well as the portrayal of Ardashīr, remain more or less the same in all these works. Study of the Shāhnāma as a mirror for princes, as this study shows, not only reveals the meaning of its symbolic tales, but also sheds light on the pre-Islamic roots of some of the ethico-political concepts presented in the medieval Perso-Islamic literature of wisdom and advice for kings and courtiers.

Based on a broad survey of the reception of Firdausī’s Shāhnāma in medieval times, this dissertation argues that Firdausī’s oeuvre was primarily perceived as a book of wisdom and advice for kings and courtly élites. The medieval reception of the Shāhnāma is clearly manifested in the comments of medieval authors about Firdausī and his work, and in their use of the Shāhnāma in the composition of their own works. The production of ikhtiyārāt-i Shāhnāmas (selections from the Shāhnāma) in medieval times and the remarkable attention of the authors of mirrors for princes to Firdausī’s opus are particularly illuminating in this regard. The survey is complemented by a close textual reading of the Ardashīr cycle in the Shāhnāma in comparison with other medieval historical accounts about Ardashīr, in order to illustrate how history in the Shāhnāma is reduced to only a framework for the presentation of ideas and ideals of kingship. Based on ancient Persian beliefs regarding the ideal state of the world, I argue that Ardashīr in the Shāhnāma is represented as a Saviour of the world. Within this context, I offer new interpretations of the symbolic tale of Ardashīr’s fight against a giant worm, and explain why the idea of the union of kingship and religion, a major topic in almost all medieval Persian mirrors for princes, has often been attributed to Ardashīr. Finally, I compare the Ardashīr cycle in the Shāhnāma with nine medieval Persian mirrors for princes to demonstrate that the ethico-political concepts contained in them, as well as the portrayal of Ardashīr, remain more or less the same in all these works. Study of the Shāhnāma as a mirror for princes, as this study shows, not only reveals the meaning of its symbolic tales, but also sheds light on the pre-Islamic roots of some of the ethico-political concepts presented in the medieval Perso-Islamic literature of wisdom and advice for kings and courtiers.