This dissertation examines the imaginative ways in which three postcolonial writers overcome a fractured collective past by creating a double-voiced discourse narrative framework that allows them to envision a reality that might-have-been while acknowledging the presence of dominant discourses that are. Morrison, Condé, and Farah overlap contradictory forms in order to show that narrative boundaries are self-imposed, mythical, and arbitrary. Intersection among these differing narratives in each text creates dialogism--a balance between dominant and counter-discourse. Because the contrasting viewpoints of dominant and counter-discourse both have a historical perspective, Morrison, Condé, and Farah work to retain a delicate intertextual fabric in their novels--a fabric woven from several narratives to create a text that rests paradoxically on the task of revealing the narrative contradictions while also showing that they can't be completely separated from each other as the singular hegemonic voice argues.

Os romances Maps, Gifts e Secrets, pertencentes à trilogia Blood in the sun do escritor somali Nuruddin Farah, apresentam duas camadas narrativas em suas composições: uma dada pelos eventos ficcionais que ocorrem quando os personagens estão despertos e a outra pelos inúmeros sonhos inseridos neles. No espaço da vida de vigília, os protagonistas dessas obras experimentam uma grande imobilidade, estando impossibilitados de alterar a realidade política de seu país, a Somália, e de efetivamente transformar suas próprias vidas. O objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar que a experiência onírica proporciona, então, uma compensação para a inatividade a que estão condenados. Os sonhos são considerados como lugares especiais de experiência, como cronotopos diferenciados que contestam e invertem o que os personagens vivenciam no mundo dito real. As narrativas oníricas presentes nesses romances operam em dissonância em relação ao restante do que é narrado, oferecendo soluções ficcionais que ainda não parecem possíveis nas outras partes da narração. Dessa forma, o foco da análise se volta para o estudo da estrutura dessas narrativas oníricas, concomitantemente com o procedimento de conferir aos seus signos significados que condigam com o contexto cultural, social e político em que vivem os seus personagens. / The novels Maps, Gifts and Secrets, which belong to the trilogy Blood in the sun by Somali writer Nuruddin Farah, present two narrative levels: one given by the fictional events that take place when the characters are fully awake and the other by the numerous dreams inserted in them. In the space of vigil, the protagonists in these works experience great immobility, being unable to change the political reality of their country, Somalia, and effectively transform their own lives. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that the dream experience provides, then, a form of compensation for the inactivity to which they are doomed. Dreams are considered special places of experience, as different chronotopoi that contest and invert what the characters undergo in the so called real world. The dream narratives that are present in these novels operate in dissonance with the rest of what is being narrated, offering fictional solutions that still do not seem to be possible in other parts of the narrative. Thus, the focus of the analysis turns to the study of the structure of these dream narratives, together with the procedure of giving meanings to their signs that match with the cultural, social and political context in which their characters live.

Os romances Maps, Gifts e Secrets, pertencentes à trilogia Blood in the sun do escritor somali Nuruddin Farah, apresentam duas camadas narrativas em suas composições: uma dada pelos eventos ficcionais que ocorrem quando os personagens estão despertos e a outra pelos inúmeros sonhos inseridos neles. No espaço da vida de vigília, os protagonistas dessas obras experimentam uma grande imobilidade, estando impossibilitados de alterar a realidade política de seu país, a Somália, e de efetivamente transformar suas próprias vidas. O objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar que a experiência onírica proporciona, então, uma compensação para a inatividade a que estão condenados. Os sonhos são considerados como lugares especiais de experiência, como cronotopos diferenciados que contestam e invertem o que os personagens vivenciam no mundo dito real. As narrativas oníricas presentes nesses romances operam em dissonância em relação ao restante do que é narrado, oferecendo soluções ficcionais que ainda não parecem possíveis nas outras partes da narração. Dessa forma, o foco da análise se volta para o estudo da estrutura dessas narrativas oníricas, concomitantemente com o procedimento de conferir aos seus signos significados que condigam com o contexto cultural, social e político em que vivem os seus personagens. / The novels Maps, Gifts and Secrets, which belong to the trilogy Blood in the sun by Somali writer Nuruddin Farah, present two narrative levels: one given by the fictional events that take place when the characters are fully awake and the other by the numerous dreams inserted in them. In the space of vigil, the protagonists in these works experience great immobility, being unable to change the political reality of their country, Somalia, and effectively transform their own lives. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that the dream experience provides, then, a form of compensation for the inactivity to which they are doomed. Dreams are considered special places of experience, as different chronotopoi that contest and invert what the characters undergo in the so called real world. The dream narratives that are present in these novels operate in dissonance with the rest of what is being narrated, offering fictional solutions that still do not seem to be possible in other parts of the narrative. Thus, the focus of the analysis turns to the study of the structure of these dream narratives, together with the procedure of giving meanings to their signs that match with the cultural, social and political context in which their characters live.

Farah Pahlavi and Jehan Sadat have both been described as leaders' wives who were Westernized. While this premise is not untrue, to label them as only demonstrating Western actions and having Western ideas denies Iran's and Egypt's women's movements from having any influence upon their lives. The premise of this work is that Farah Pahlavi and Jehan Sadat engaged the historical legacies of the debates concerning women's role in society. Both women have been omitted from the historical narrative because of their identification as a Westernized element in society. This work explores the legacies of the construction of womanhood in Iran and Egypt (via a discussion of the women's movements) and how Farah Pahlavi and Jehan Sadat interacted with their particular countries experiences during their tenure as leader's wives.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1999. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-146).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 253-260).

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Translation Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 2015 / This study presents an argument for considering the works of Nuruddin Farah translated into Italian as core texts in the body of postcolonial Italian literature. The study focusses on Farah’s first two trilogies: Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship and Blood in the Sun. It is shown in this study that the translated versions of the novels making up these two trilogies, the former in particular, provide rare and unique narrative content capable of directly challenging the myths and misconceptions that have come to characterise the memory of the Italian colonial period. These works are read contrapuntally against historical narrative tropes that were used to represent Africa and Africans in Italian colonial literature. Farah’s work is also compared with the writing of contemporary writers of African descent whose work is at the forefront of interest in postcolonial studies in Italy. This study shows how Farah’s work complements and enhances this emerging literary tradition. It is then shown that, despite this obvious potential, the status of Farah’s work in the Italian literary system has been limited by an unwelcoming publishing climate for African literature in Italy. The study then provides an analysis of the translations themselves focussing on three texts: Maps, Gifts and Sweet and Sour Milk. This analysis takes the form of a descriptive comparative analysis aimed at establishing the extent to which the three different Italian translators of these texts handled the translation of stylistic features of the texts which signal their postcoloniality and their heritage of Somali oral poetry. It is concluded that, in the main, the translations are somewhat domesticated which has certain negative consequences in terms of their ability as texts to speak on behalf of the colonized people they represent. It is however noted that one text exhibits a greater tendency towards foreignization. By no means coincidentally, this text was produced by a translator with theoretical and practical experience in the field of postcolonial literature. The study concludes by conceiving of the trajectory of Nuruddin Farah’s work through the Italian literary system as a narrative of violence, resistance and retribution on either side of the colonial divide.

Hors champ (Offscreen) is a collection of short stories and poems that offers rewrites of striking works of contemporary Quebec literature from 1960 to the present. In this collection, the literary legacy is problematized by the bursting of the source of hypotexts. Thus, the rewriting is done by recovering certain formal characteristics of source texts, while putting forward new thematic content. The texts relate to many affiliations, offering not a static and overwhelming posterity, but rather an active heritage, fragmented and drawing from several sources — as Quebec literary heritage does. The stories in the collection do not clearly announce their hypotext but rather begin with an epigraph, as a way to play with the readers’ expectations. The architecture of the collection does not respect the chronological order of hypotexts, and short stories from the same source are not grouped together. Aquin demeure (Aquin remains) compares two contemporary Quebec novels : Ça va aller by Catherine Mavrikakis and Pourquoi Bologne, by Alain Farah. Starting from the observation that the figure of Hubert Aquin exerts a spectral presence on Quebec literature and has bequeathed a problematic and paradoxical legacy to posterity, the project aims to see what readings of this aquinien heritage the works of Mavrikakis and Farah offer. The analysis of Ça va aller begins with a comparative study of the two authorial figures whom are being presented : Hubert Aquin and Robert Laflamme, an avatar of Réjean Ducharme. The study seeks to show how Aquin’s literary legacy is unattainable for the narrator while the analysis of Pourquoi Bologne focuses on the rewrite of Prochain épisode. With Genette’s notions of intertextuality and hypertextuality, the study attempts to determine whether it is possible to consider Pourquoi Bologne a text in the second degree. / Hors champ est un recueil composé de courtes nouvelles et de poèmes proposant des réécritures d’œuvres marquantes de la littérature québécoise contemporaine de 1960 à nos jours. L’héritage littéraire est problématisé dans ce recueil par l’éclatement de la provenance des hypotextes. Ainsi, la réécriture s’effectue par la reprise de certaines caractéristiques formelles des textes sources tout en proposant de nouveaux contenus thématiques. C’est donc à plusieurs filiations que le texte se rattache, proposant du même coup non pas une postérité statique et écrasante, mais plutôt un héritage en acte, morcelé, fragmentaire et puisant à plusieurs sources — à l’instar de l’héritage littéraire québécois. Les nouvelles du recueil n’annoncent pas clairement leur hypotexte, mais proposent plutôt, dans le désir de jouer avec le lecteur, un exergue en début de texte. L’architecture du recueil ne respecte pas l’ordre chronologique des hypotextes et les nouvelles provenant du même texte source ne sont pas regroupées. Aquin demeure compare deux romans québécois contemporains soit Ça va aller de Catherine Mavrikakis et Pourquoi Bologne d’Alain Farah. À partir du constat selon lequel la figure d’Hubert Aquin exercerait une présence spectrale sur la littérature québécoise et aurait légué un héritage problématique et paradoxal à la postérité, le projet a pour but de voir quelles lectures de cet héritage aquinien proposent les œuvres de Mavrikakis et de Farah. L’analyse de Ça va aller débute par une étude comparative des deux figures auctoriales qui y sont présentées soit Hubert Aquin et Robert Laflamme, un avatar de Réjean Ducharme. Alors que Laflamme / Ducharme aurait contaminé toute la littérature avec ses voltiges langagières, Aquin aurait quant à lui abandonné la nation québécoise le jour de son suicide. L’analyse de Pourquoi Bologne, quant à elle s’intéresse à la reprise et au détournement de Prochain épisode. À partir des notions d’intertextualité et d’hypertextualité développées par Genette, l’étude tente de déterminer s’il est possible de penser Pourquoi Bologne comme un texte au second degré.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available online.

During the Arabic cultural renaissance of the nineteenth century known as the nahda, Christian Arabs made a substantial contribution to the development of fiction and journalism. Among these pioneers, Salim al-Bustani, Jurji Zaydan, and Farah Antun were inspired by translations of European fiction to write the first historical novels in Arabic. Their narrations of the Muslim wars of conquest are carefully constructed blends of history and fiction that emphasize the cultural and religious values that Christian and Muslim Arabs hold in common. In their novels, these authors celebrate the historical achievements of the Arabs and seek to inspire a new sense of Arab cultural identity, open to Christians and Muslims alike and based on shared language, history, territory, values, and aspirations for reform. In this way, these authors respond to the sectarian tensions of their time, European imperialism, and the challenges of modernism with ideas that would become central to Arab nationalist discourse in the twentieth century.