The Translation of the “Myth” of Crucifixion in Kamel Hussein’s Qaryah Zálima: A Relevance Approach

Abstract

This paper adopts a relevance theory approach and attempts to present a cognitive analysis of the translation of the “myth” of Crucifixion in Muhammad Kamel Hussein’s Qaryah Zálima or City of Wrong (1954). The paper aims to apply Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson’s Relevance Theory (1986, 1987 and1995) to the analysis of the translation of the Christian Islamic scholar Bishop Kenneth Cragg, City of Wrong: A Friday in Jerusalem (1994). The main argument of this theory is that the translator’s access to beliefs, ideologies and existing assumptions of the target receiver, which build his psychological and cognitive context, is of paramount importance to the transference and processing of information inherent in a literary text. The significance of this type of context is to guide the receiver to select the information that is more relevant to his cognitive potential and that is less-effort requiring. A receiver finds a literary work relevant to him if it brings changes to his “cognitive environment” by turning him aware of something new. The author of Qaryah Zálima who has surpassed the time and place limitations of the myth intends to express the moral dilemma of taking decisions for communal interest, and the translator intends to transfer this moral dilemma with respect to his target audience expectations..