The Critic/ Translator at Work: Translational Strategies in At-Tabi’ Yanhad by Radwa Ashour

This paper focuses on the use of translation as an integral part of a postcolonisal literary critical project and takes Radwa Ashour’s approach to translation in the book titled At-Tabi’ Yanhad: Ar-Riwayah fi Gharb Afriqia [The Follower Rises: The Novel in West Africa] (1980/2016) as a case in point.  On the one hand, the paper examines Radwa Ashour’s ‘voice’ as a ‘translator’ of the entire body of extracts cited in the study. The analysis is framed by Theo Herman’s views (2014) that translations are by nature ironic and do not establish immediate mimetic relationships with the source, which entails that committed translators do have a stance that they express. It is the role of the informed reader to elicit the positioning of the translator/ critic. The research also adopts a broader view of the work that counts as translation based on Pascal Cassanova’s (2010) affirmation that translational transactions include introductions and critical works that combine commentary/ criticism and translation of full works/ extracts. As such, the paper proposes that Ashour acted both as critic and translator and in this capacity devised an approach termed as ‘critical selectivity’ particularly marked with comparison and commentary. It was through this approach that her ‘voice’ is communicated explicitly and implicitly to the reader who interprets it. On the other hand, the paper examines Ashour’s position on the linguistic dilemma faced by writers from Africa post-independence due to the local/ international dichotomy and the related issue of asserting identity versus wider readership and acclaim when writing in a “dominating language” (Cassanova, 2010) such as English or French. The paper argues that in engaging with such issues and in producing this study in Arabic, Ashour was a pioneer in introducing translational strategies invoking postcolonial concerns with the issue of language and its connections to identity politics.