The Empire writes back…Or does it? Translation Strategies and Power (Re)negotiation in Arabic Translations of Agatha Christie’s 'Murder in Mesopotamia'. (original) (raw)

2017, The Empire writes back…Or does it? Translation Strategies and Power (Re)negotiation in Arabic Translations of Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia.

Abstract

Carrying the title 'Queen of Crime', Agatha Christie remains one of the best-known and productive authors within detective fiction. She is often quoted for being one of the best-selling fiction authors of all times, competing with the Bible and Shakespeare by the number of translated and sold copies of her novels. As the wife of the archeologist Max Mallowan, she spent a great deal of time at archaeological excavation sites in present Syria and Iraq. Her encounter with this part of the world is portrayed in her autobiographical works. The time she spent in the Middle East also inspired her to pen some of her most famous novels, whose events take place here. One of them is ‘Murder in Mesopotamia’. The crime and its investigation in this novel take place in Iraq – a country, which was subject to British colonial ambitions and projects. The main research object of the thesis are three Arabic translations of ‘Murder in Mesopotamia’, published in respectively Egypt, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. Employing theories from the realm of Descriptive and Postcolonial Translation Studies, as well as Detective Fiction Theory, the analysis of the three texts examines the different translational strategies and choices, made by the translators. Among the main research emphases are the power dynamics in postcolonial sense, as well as the texts’ relation to nationality, race and foreignness. The final chapter outlines possible explanations of the proliferation of Arabic translations of Christies works, and her popularity amongst her Arab readers. Translated detective fiction in colonial and postcolonial context is a literary phenomenon, which remains largely unresearched. My hope with the present study is to provide some insights into the translational norms and decisions, governing the shaping of the translated literary texts, through which Arab readers enter Agatha Christie’s fictional world.

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