Date of Defense
13-5-2026 9:00 AM
Location
Room 1116, H1 Building
Document Type
Thesis Defense
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department
Translation Studies
First Advisor
Raja Lahiani
Keywords
Arabic Fiction; Cultural Turn; Deconstruction; Literary Translation; Postmodern
Abstract
This thesis presents a literary translation of Youssef Ziedan's novel The Shadow of the Serpent. Framed through the lenses of the cultural turn in translation studies, Bassnett & Lefevere, and Venuti, with Jacques Derrida's deconstruction, alongside the feminist, postcolonial, and psychoanalytic perspectives. This work presents translation as an act of cultural negotiation and philosophical inquiry. It also contributes a critical reading of the novel's rich historical, cultural, and linguistic dimensions. The author uses dialectical language variation, shifting between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Egyptian Arabic (CEA), which becomes a core position of analysis and challenge. These language choices are used to point out social hierarchies, intellectual authority, and identities. Grounded in this theoretical framework, this thesis supports the argument that the translator's task is not to seek perfect equivalence to the author's original text but to engage productively with the text's challenges. Selected passages are translated and analyzed to show how a mixture of translational strategies can preserve the cultural and ideological forces of the novel. Deconstruction, in particular, visualizes how the translation process itself supplements the original text, revealing new layers of meaning within its historical discourse, sacred femininity, and postmodern fragmentation. This translated work contributes to the discussions on cultural negotiation, the instability of meaning, and the translator's role as a mediator, a critical reader, and a re-writer.
Included in
The Shadow of the Serpent: A Translation and a Critical Reading
Room 1116, H1 Building
This thesis presents a literary translation of Youssef Ziedan's novel The Shadow of the Serpent. Framed through the lenses of the cultural turn in translation studies, Bassnett & Lefevere, and Venuti, with Jacques Derrida's deconstruction, alongside the feminist, postcolonial, and psychoanalytic perspectives. This work presents translation as an act of cultural negotiation and philosophical inquiry. It also contributes a critical reading of the novel's rich historical, cultural, and linguistic dimensions. The author uses dialectical language variation, shifting between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Egyptian Arabic (CEA), which becomes a core position of analysis and challenge. These language choices are used to point out social hierarchies, intellectual authority, and identities. Grounded in this theoretical framework, this thesis supports the argument that the translator's task is not to seek perfect equivalence to the author's original text but to engage productively with the text's challenges. Selected passages are translated and analyzed to show how a mixture of translational strategies can preserve the cultural and ideological forces of the novel. Deconstruction, in particular, visualizes how the translation process itself supplements the original text, revealing new layers of meaning within its historical discourse, sacred femininity, and postmodern fragmentation. This translated work contributes to the discussions on cultural negotiation, the instability of meaning, and the translator's role as a mediator, a critical reader, and a re-writer.