Untranslatability and Cultural Encounters in Arab-Anglophone Literature: Leila Aboulela as a Case Study

Abstract

Culture is not entirely translatable. Cultural meaning, however, is. Nevertheless, culture-bound terms and expressions, on the one hand, defy verbatim translation and provide an opportunity for intercultural encounters, on the other. This paper qualitatively interrogates the problem of cultural translatability and its relation to cultural in-betweenness in the cultural zone of contact between Arab Muslim immigrants and Westerners. Translation is not only a mere technical process the translator undergoes, it is also a cultural interaction between the cultures constituting the languages undergoing translation.  Content and discourse analysis methods are particularly utilized to explore cultural untranslatability in Arab Migrant literature. In her polyphonous literary works Minaret, The Translator and Lyrics Alley, Leila Aboulela, through the Arab and Muslim culture-specific terms and expressions scattered throughout these narratives, navigates how far Islamic culture can be rendered to the Londoners (and to the Westerners in general). She also problematizes the feasibility of cultural translation in terms of terminology belonging to the religious field. In a sense, cultural untranslatability signifies, among many things, the uniqueness and peculiarity of cultures. However, she shows that cultural translation is, among other things, a form of dialogue between cultures being translated.