Religious Allusions and Expressions in Arabic Literature in English Translation

Call for Submissions Deadline: March 20, 2023

One of the challenges faced by translators of Arabic literary texts into English concerns the approaches used in rendering embedded religious content and allusions. In this panel, we invite presentations that focus on the strategies used by translators to convey the meaning of religious expressions, allusions, and symbols in a manner that takes into consideration the compatibility between the linguistic and conceptual planes. We would also like to address the strategies that translators of Arabic literature use to find equivalence and substitutes for particular Qur’anic connotations and implications in the source language and culture and their counterparts in the target language and culture.

In this AATA panel held in conjunction with MESA’s 57th annual meeting on November 2-5, 2023, in Montréal, Canada, we would like to focus on the rhetorical strategies and linguistic choices used in translating religious allusions and expressions in Arabic literature in English in relation to the following topics:

• • Strategies of semantic and syntactic approximations
• • Adaptation and naturalization of culturally specific expressions
• • Cultural, pragmatic and text specific problems
• • Idiomatic expressions with religious allusions
• • Functional equivalents and cultural substitutes.

We invite presenters interested in presenting on any of these or similar issues relevant to the panel topic to send a 300-word abstract and a short bio by Monday, March 20, 2023, to aatapanel@gmail.com

Accepted presentations should be delivered in Arabic.

For more information on the American Association of Teachers of Arabic, its publications, and activities, please visit: https://www.aataweb.org