Re-thinking East-West Encounters through Translation Lens: Salhi’s Occidentalism: Literary Representations of the Maghrebi Experience

Abstract

Although the translation of Maghrebi feminist literature has been largely overlooked in both academic studies and translation practices, this thesis addresses that gap by rethinking East–West encounters through the lens of translation. It presents an original Arabic translation of three chapters from Zahia Smail Salhi’s Occidentalism: Literary Representations of the Maghrebi Experience of the East-West Encounter (2019), foregrounding the under-explored intersection of feminist translation strategies within the Arabic literary and cultural context. While feminist translation has been extensively theorised in Western scholarship, a significant gap remains in exploring how these strategies can be adapted to Arabic translations of feminist-oriented works, particularly within the Maghrebi tradition. By integrating feminist translation theory with close textual analysis, this study introduces a nuanced approach that combines established strategies, such as supplementing, prefacing, and hijacking, with a newly proposed ‘neutralisation strategy’ designed to mitigate gender bias in Arabic. The thesis demonstrates that translation, far from being a neutral linguistic exercise, functions as a site of ideological negotiation with the potential to challenge patriarchal discourses and elevate marginalised female voices in Arabic literary spaces. In doing so, it positions feminist translation as a powerful tool not only for linguistic adaptation but also for socio-political intervention. In addition, a detailed analysis of key grammatical challenges—including tense, aspect, modality, passivity, number, and punctuation—highlights the complexities of translating between English and Arabic. It reveals that addressing these challenges requires both linguistic proficiency and a culturally sensitive approach attuned to the norms of the target language.

This thesis ultimately makes an original contribution by bridging feminist translation theory and Arabic translation practice, offering context-sensitive strategies that promote both inclusivity and fidelity. It affirms translation as a transformative act—one that reshapes discourse, contests dominant narratives, and amplifies marginalised voices in cross-cultural literary exchange.