The Two Translations of Edward Said’s Orientalism by Kamal Abu-Deeb and Muhammad Enani: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Translation is an important practice which aids in developing a mutual understanding between cultures. But the performance of translation varies from culture to culture. Orientalism, a book by Edward Said tackles cultural studies within which he has challenged the idea of orientalism or the distinction between East and West, as he views it. It has been translated by the scholars belonging to different cultures worldwide. The present study discusses the variations of the two translations of Edward Said’s book Orientalism undertaken by Kamal Abu Deeb (the professor of Arabic literature) and Muhammad Enani (the famous Egyptian writer and translator). The focus was led on exploring the differences and similarities of the Target Text (TT) and comparing them to the Source Text (ST). Whereas, comparison and analysis constituted mainly of stylistic, structural and theoretical features. In addition, this study sheds light on the reasons behind the appearance of the second translated version by Enani. The data were collected from the first chapter of each book and analyzed by using a descriptive method based on theories and strategies of translation. The findings of the study indicate the differences in choice of translation methodologies made by the two translators, as revealed by their different approaches of translation; Abu Deeb used literal translation method which made the text obscure and hard to understand. On the other hand, for retranslating Orientalism, Enani used idiomatic translation method and domesticized the text in order to make it accessible and easy to understand by the Arab Reader.

Keywords

• orientalism
• post-colonial translation
• literary translation
• edward said
• muhammad enani