Predominantemente representados a partir de imagens estereotipadas difundidas pelas grandes mídias internacionais, os povos árabes são sempre associados ao contexto de guerras, terrorismo e fundamentalismo religioso. Muito embora detenham uma cultura literária vastíssima, são pouco lidos através da produção de seus grandes escritores, tendo sua identidade cultural construída a partir do que se diz nas manchetes jornalísticas. Considerando o potencial que a tradução tem de formar identidades culturais nas comunidades receptoras e constituir-se uma forma de resistência, inovação e mudança cultural, no presente trabalho, propomos a tradução de excertos do romance Innah London ya azz, da escritora libanesa Hanan Al-Shaykh. Temos por objetivo realizar uma tradução que reconheça e evidencie traços da alteridade e receba o Outro enquanto Outro. Embora também defendamos que nenhum texto é capaz de transmitir uma visão geral de outra cultura, mas, pelo contrário, provê elementos que, de certa forma, somam-se às imagens que representam uma cultura, de modo a manifestar elementos para autodefinição. Disto decorre que o texto traduzido nunca compreende completamente um gênero existente em uma certa cultura, mas contribui para o processo dinâmico do diálogo no sistema literário. Além disso, o texto traduzido não transmite o mesmo significado produzido na língua de partida, pois as interpretações possíveis são concebidas baseadas nos recursos e limitações presentes na língua, no imaginário social, e sistema literário da comunidade de recepção. Portanto, os efeitos produzidos através de um texto traduzido no sistema literário não podem ser previstos, embora funcione como uma força de representação da alteridade e de autorrepresentação. / Predominantly represented by stereotyped images spread by the international media, Arab peoples have always been related to the context of war, terrorism, and religious fundamentalism. Although they possess a vast literary culture, they are hardly read through the production of their great writers, having their cultural identity constructed based on what is said about them in the journalistic headlines. Thus, we propose to present the translation of excerpts from the novel Innah London ya azz (2001), written by the Lebanese writer Hanan Al-Shaykh, considering the potential of the translation in shaping cultural identities in host communities. We aim to perform a translation which recognizes, and evidences traces of otherness receives the other as Other. Although, we also defend that no translated text is able to convey a full survey of another culture, but provides elements, which somehow add to the images of culture and as such provides material for self-definition. Hence translated text never comprehend totally an existent genre in a certain culture; instead, it contributes to the dynamical process of dialogue into the literary system. Besides that, no translated text conveys the same meaning produced in source-language; for the possible interpretations are conceived based on the limitations and resources present in the target language, the social imaginary, and the literary system of the target-community. Therefore, the effects produced by a translated text into the receptor literary system cannot be foreseen, although it certainly will function as a force of representation of others and self-definition.

This thesis examines gender relations in the war novel Ḥikāyat Zahra (1989) by the Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh. The analysis focuses on interpersonal relations among male and female characters in the novel as well as perceptions of gender and sexuality within a patriarchal order as depicted in the writing of Hanan al-Shaykh. The analysis is derived from a theoretical approach inspired by the work of Evelyne Accad’s Sexuality and War: Literary Masks of the Middle East. The thesis applies narratology as a method to show how gender and sexuality are constructed within the text. The analysis is divided into four main sections (1) dysfunctional family relations: patriarchy and false landmark (2) Defective gender relations: the reification of Zahra and the obsession of virginity (3) From inner to outer madness and (4) Illusions of agency and freedom during the war. Together these sections demonstrate the significance of sexuality and gender relations in women’s writing on the Lebanese Civil War. I argue that the novel presents a society where issues that eventually cause the breakout of a destructive civil war are rooted in the social structure which is based on patriarchal values. Due to these values, women are never seen as independent beings with agency capable of balancing between desire and morals. Thus, women become the primary victims of both political and social violence in the context of war.

Throughout the last three decades, the Arab region has attracted the unwanted attention of the rest of the world because of its spiralling political upheaval. This unrest has caused migration, economic and cultural changes, and eventually a spring of revolutions and protests in demand of reform. Arab countries are now in the spotlight of global current affairs, and all the imperfections regarding their cultural, social, and gender inequalities have surfaced to the foreground. Arab women novelists have been addressing feminist issues for centuries, chipping away at the stereotypical image of the meek and voiceless Arab woman that comes hand in hand with Orientalism. Through their fiction, writers such as Nawal El Saadawi, Hanan Al- Shaykh and Fadia Faqir have promulgated a bold brand of Arab feminist thought. This interdisciplinary thesis explores the Greater Syrian and Egyptian woman's novel written between 1975 and 2007. Through the in-depth analysis of Arab women's novels available in English, I attempt to uncover the many reasons behind today's gender inequality in Greater Syria and Egypt. By examining contemporary Arabic narrative styles and cultivating traditional Arab story-telling methods, the creative element of this thesis uses fiction to expose social and political injustice. The novel within this thesis challenges different forms of patriarchy that are dominant in the region, and endeavours to document a historical, on-going revolution.