Nation and Translation in the Middle East

Abstract

This introductory paper argues for the importance of a sustained disciplinary engagement between Middle Eastern Studies and translation studies that would open up new ways of thinking about the epistemological foundations and the ethical effects of both fields in textual and worldly terms. While modern historiography and literary studies in and of the Middle East tend to be constructed around problematic and unequivocal models of transfer and translation (from West to East), the interest in the question of ethics in translation studies often neglects the specificity of ‘other’ translation histories and practices that are shaped by colonial hegemonies in the region and are directly related to complex (and contested) processes of nation-building and identity formation. The paper considers a number of such histories and practices, from the late Mughal Empire to modern Egypt, and explores the implications for contemporary debates in translation studies on questions of ‘difference’ and ‘fidelity’.