The Domestication and Arabization of the Bard: Towards the Reception of Shakespeare in the Arab World

Mohammed Naser Hassoon

doi:10.18778/2083-8530.23.03

Authors

Mohammed Naser Hassoon University of Thi-Qar, Nassiriyah, Iraq https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7979-4469

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.23.03

Keywords:

adaptation, Arabic, Arabization, cultural transfer, Khazal al-Majidi, repositioning, Shakespeare, translation

Abstract

Since Najib al-Haddad and Tanyusʻ Abdu’s first Arabic versions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet at the end of the 19th century, the reception of Shakespeare in the Arab world has gone through a process of adaptation, Arabization, and translation proper. We consider the process of Arabization / domestication of Shakespeare’s plays since Najib al-Haddad’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and Tanyusʻ Abdu’s adaptation of Hamlet, to the achievements of Khalīl Mutran and Muhammad Hamdi. We underline, as particular examples of Shakespeare’s appropriation, the literary response of Ali Ahmed Bakathir, Muhammad al-Maghut and Mamduh Udwan, with a particular stress on Khazal al-Majidi and his adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. All these writers reposition Shakespeare’s plays in an entirely different cultural space.

Author Biography

Mohammed Naser Hassoon, University of Thi-Qar, Nassiriyah, Iraq

Mohammed Naser Hassoon is a lecturer in English at the University of Thi-Qar, in Nassiriyah, Iraq, where he teaches English and American literature. Dr. Mohammed Naser Hassoon obtained his PhD in English from the University of Craiova, Romania (2018), with a dissertation on The writer’s quest for identity: the multifold dimensions of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, which he published as The Arab Moby-Dick: Bridging the Gap between Cultures (Craiova, Universitaria, 2019). He has an MA in English from “BAMU” in Aurangabad, India (2014), and a BA in English from the College of Education for Humanities of the University of Thi Qar, in Al-Nasiriyah, Iraq (1997). He attended a number of conferences where he contributed the results of his research, and published articles in academic journals and volumes in Romania, Serbia, Poland and the UK. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7979-4469

References

al-Azzam, Bakri. Certain Terms Relating to Islamic Observances: Their Meanings with Reference to Three Translations of the Qur’an and a Translation of Hadith. Diss. Durham University, 2005. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1775/

al-Janabi, Yousra. خزعل الماجدي يغوص في 'جحيم شكسبير' (khazaeal almajidiu yaghus fi 'jhim shaksabira' yasraa aljanabiu, Khazal Al Majidi dives into 'Shakespeare's Hell', MEO—Middle East Online, 21.03.2020. https://middle-east-online.com/خزعل-الماجدي-يغوص-في-جحيم-شكسبير.

al-Juraydini, Sami. Riwayat Hamlet li-Shakespeare (The Play of Hamlet by Shakespeare). Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Rahmaniyya, 1922.

al-Majidi, Khazal. الأعمال المسرحية (Al’aemal almasrahiatu, Theatrical Works) Vol. 1. Beirut: almuasasat alearabiat lildirasat wa alnushri, 2011.

al-Majidi, Khazal. جحيم شكسبير (خمس مسرحيات تعيدإنتاج مسرح و سيرة شكسبير) (jahim shaksubir: khms musrahayat teid'iintaj masrah w sirat shuksbir, Shakespeare’s Inferno: five plays reproducing plays and Shakespeare’s biography). Amann: Dar-Fadaat, 2018.

Al-Shetawi, Mahmoud F. “Arabic Adaptations of Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory.” Critical Survey 25.3 (2013): 4-28. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24712406 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/cs.2013.250302

Al-Shetawi, Mahmoud F. “Hamlet in Arabic.” Hamlet Studies 22.1-2 (2000): 77-109.

Dickins, James, Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins. Thinking Arabic Translation. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.

Hanna, Sameh F. “Decomercializing Shakespeare: Mutran’s translation of Othello”. In Shakespeare and the Arab World. Eds. Katherine Hennesey and Margaret Litvin. New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2019. 35-62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1850hj6.6

Hatim, Basil and Ian Mason. Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman, 1990.

Hawamdeh, Mufid. “Allusions to Muhammad in Shakespeare: a Lexico-Cultural Study”, Damascus University Journal 13 (1988): 53-72.

Hawamdeh, Mufid. “Shakespeare’s Treatment of the Moor in Othello: an Oriental Perspective”, International Journal of Islamic and Arabic Studies IV.1 (1987).

Haywood, John Alfred. Modern Arabic Literature (1800-1970): An Introduction, with Extracts in Translation. London: Lund Humphries, 1971.

Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. London: Routledge, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203095010

‘Iffat, Muhammad. Riwayat Makbith (The Play of Macbeth). Cairo: Matba‘at al-Muqattam, 1911.

Khulūsi, Safā’. “a1-‘Anāsir a1-‘Arabiyyah fi Adab Shaykisbir” (“The Arabic Elements in Shakespeare’s Literature”). Ahl al-Naft, no. 59, June 1956.

Litvin, Margaret. Hamlet’s Arab Journey: Shakespeare’s Prince and Nasser’s Ghost. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691137803.001.0001

Najm, Muhammad Yusif. Al-Masrahiyya fi al-Adab al-‘Arabi al-Hadith: 1847-1914 (The Play in Modern Arabic Literature: 1847-1914). Beirut: Dar Beirut lil-Tiba‘a wa al-Nashr, 1956.

Next Page Foundation. 2004. “Lost and Found in Translation. Translations’ Support Policies in the Arab World”. A study commissioned by the Next Page Foundation, conducted in 2004 by Thalassa Consulting and Gregor Meiering.

Scoville, Spencer Dan. The Agency of the Translator: Khalil Baydas’ Literary Translations. Diss. University of Michigan, 2012.