the satanic verses- salman rushdie: a case study on cultural translation with religion as a...
DESCRIPTION
The Satanic Verses is the best example of how culture has been translated to create as big a controversy as THE RUSHDIE AFFAIR. Understanding the text with the discourse of religion was easier since the dream sequences of Gibreel (the protagonist) is filled with allegories on islam and its history. Through this project we tried to understand how SALMAN RUSHDIE translated actual facts; took influences and inspiration from the questioned past of islam; and had the courage to doubt his own faith and islam’s authenticity. Before deciding on our source text, we analysed and compared the various concepts to work on. Hence we chose the discourse of religion out of other discourses like politics, gender, resistance, violence etc., as it was the most evidently found discourses in the indian context. Moreover the translation form that we opted for was cultural translation out of other forms like transcreation, communicative, literal, etc., since the role and implication of culture in translation studies plays a pivotal role in the indian context. After deciding on the above two concepts we searched for an example (a case) which could be a movie, novel, article etc., that displayed significant characteristics of the applications of above two concepts. After researching on a number of examples we decided to stick to The Satanic Verses as it served the best example to explain cultural translation with religion as a discourse. DISCOURSE: Any pan human idea which decides your socio-cultural attitudes or implications or aspects. DISCOURSE AS RELIGION: Religion is a discourse because while living in a society, following a specific culture; a person starts accepting some stereotypes related to religion. Person to person the perception may vary. However, religious discourse is unavoidable. It seems to affect our views on all things. An individual does give it a thought irrespective to what extent he/she might be rational or practical or modern.Religious discourse includes not only statements of personal experiences, but also ethical admonitions, creeds, moral codes, ritual procedures, myths, parables, and so on. Religious discourse extends over an almost indefinite range. It appears to arise out of collective experiences of particular peoples and, does not so much determine what we think, feel, and do as to describe what is thinkable, feel able, and doable. Discourse establishes social stereotypes CONCLUSION Clearly, what has most offended Muslims in Rushdie's novel is his use of indecent language in association with sacred characters in Islam, through sequences involving dream, fantasy or madness. In several passages the sacred is even discussed through everyday language of the streets. Rushdie's book has a place in the history of thought, because he has dared to challenge and explore the supremacy of faith in the minds of millions.TRANSCRIPT
THE SATANIC VERSES
RELIGION AS DISCOURSE AND
CULTURAL TRANSLATION
MADE BY-
SHREYA SOOD 13280SHRISHMA KUDADAH
13281SIMRAN SONI 13292
SUGANDHA PRIYA 13297
VANDITA NIM 1331125TH MARCH 2014
RELIGION AS DISCOURSE
Religion is a discourse because while living in a society, following a specific
culture; a person starts accepting some stereotypes related to religion.
Discourse is unavoidable.
Religious discourse extends over an almost indefinite range.
FEW STEREOTYPES:
CLOTHING
ORNAMENTS & ARTICLES
SIGNS & SYMBOLS
DIFFERENT NAMES IN
DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
RELATION TO TERRORISM
CULTURAL TRANSLATION
Culture :total approach to life of particular groups of people and
their ways of behaviour
Practice of translation involves cultural differences
To initiate the target-language reader into the sensibilities of the
source language culture
Withdraws the separation between the source and the target
language
PROBLEMS DURING CULTURAL
TRANSLATIONcomplex task
some societies and cultures are dominant
compared to others
words and phrases grounded in one culture-
impossible to translate in terms of another
EXAMPLES
use plurals to address elders to show their respect
Indians live with extended families- concept alien in western
countries different words for each relation unaware of family values
Beliefs and feelings change from culture to culture
Dress codes or ornaments and their symbols
better understanding of
language and culture
translators help enlarge the
vocabulary of the target
language-coin new expressions
CHAPTERS
1. Angel Gibreel
2. Mahound
3. Ellowen Deeowen
4. Ayesha
5. A city visible but
unseen
6. Return to Jahilia
7. The angel
Azraeel
8. The parting of
the Arabian Sea
9. A wonderful lamp
GIBREELFARISHTA
SALADIN CHAMCHA
INTRODUCTION
Rushdie believes culture belongs to everyone & one
can interpret in his/her own way.
The ‘Satanic Verses’ can be understood as revisionist
interpretation of Islamic history.
It shows dominant discourses as nationalism, religious
essentialism, etc.
TITLE OF THE NOVEL REACTIONS ACROSS THE WORLD RUSHDIE’S CLAIM
THE SATANIC VERSES
• “The Satanic Qur’an” for the impossibility of finding equal terms (equivalence) in several Asiatic languages, is very often misread, through the aggrandizement of the mass media, as a sacrilegious insult by many pious Muslims who have no idea about the content of the book.
• The offence lies in the implications resulting from translating it into the Arabic – Al-Ayat ash-Shaytaniya, the Persian – Ayat-e Shetani, and the Turkish – Seytan Aytleri, which would lead to a broad retranslation as The Satanic Qur’an.
Although Rushdie claims that “the phrase comes from al-Tabari, one of the canonical Islamic sources” (The Observer, January 22, 1989).
MUHAMMADThe Arab prophet who, according to Islam, was the last messenger of
Allah.
The ‘Quran’ is believed by Muslims to have been revealed to
Muhammad from God.
Muhammad established in the light of Quran the religious, social &
political tenets.
Greatest of all prophets.
For conservative Muslim, Islam is way more than just a religion.
‘MAHOUND’ IN SATANIC VERSES
Name used by Christian writers in past to vilify Muhammad
Word means ‘devil’ or ‘false Prophet’
Use of this character, very painful for Muslims
Two sides: Angelic & Demonic
SUBMISSION INSTEAD OF ISLAM
Against the fatal certitudes of orthodox Islam,
the theme of doubt, and loss of faith, is one of
the most persistent in Rushdie's book.
This was sufficient to bring the charge of
apostasy, and the penalty of death, upon him,
particularly from Iran. ('The name of the new
religion is Submission', p.125).
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is
self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal
tendencies.
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies
Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies
HIJABACTUAL SATANIC
VERSES• veil covers head and chest
• females beyond the age of puberty
• in presence of adult males
•METAPHYSICAL DIMESION:"the veil which separates man or the world from God"
•use of the name 'The Curtain' for the Jahilia brothel
•alludes to Muhammad’s divinely inspired decree
“WHORES AND WRITERS, MAHOUND - WE ARE THE PEOPLE YOU CAN’T FORGIVE .” S A I D B Y B A A L , PA G E 4 0 , T H E S ATA N I C V E R S E S
insight into the Jahilia
plotline and theocracies
more generally
treat women and dissident
writers especially harshly
refers to Mahound’s
biggest flaw – his pride
whores hurt Mahound’s
pride by adopting the
personalities of Mahound’s
wives
reveals Mahound’s
narcissism
AYESHAThe bloody and unsuccessful military campaign
conducted after Muhammad’s death by his favourite wife,
Ayesha, against the fourth Khalifa, the prophet’s son- in-
law, Ali, is a historical reference often cited by
fundamentalists (both Sunni and Shi’ite) as proof that
women should not enter public life (Aravamudan 13).
The story of Ayesha makes free use of a widely
reported episode that happened in Karachi in
1983 when Naseem Fatima led thirty eight Shi’a followers into the sea
which they expected to part for them.
RUSHDIE’S TRANSLATION
He takes from Islamic history Ayesha, the name of the
Prophet’s favourite wife, and uses the same name for the
most popular of the prostitutes in the Jahilia brothel, for
the Muslim visionary who led her fellow villagers to
drown in the sea, and for one of the girl prostitutes in
London. Sacred and profane versions of womanhood
become fused and indistinguishable by this linguistic
sleight of hand.
He has shown the bloody image of Prophet’s favourite
wife.
CRITICISM OF ISLAMBY THE INTRODUCTION OF SALMAN
Mahound failed to detect the Persian scribe Salman’s deliberate alteration of God’s verses .
Salman the Persian, an immigrant convert to Islam and the scribe of the dream prophet Mahound
Salman shares a first name with Rushdie; in
addition, his Persian ethnicity makes him an
outsider among the followers of Submission.
Salman’s position as a scribe, and his invention of
the spike pit (in the novel) show that he is more
intellectually inclined than his peers, and that he
has a creative personality – both qualities that
Rushdie might well identify with.
Salman, when he starts deliberately mis-
transcribing Mahound’s dictation, discovers that
his “poor words could not be distinguished from the
Revelation by God’s own Messenger” (367).
Salman also refers to “one of Muhammad’s closest companions
a major figure in Islamic history, Salman al-Farsi
(‘Salman the Persian’)”
“some fringe Islamic sects hold that he was actually the angel Gabriel in disguise”
JOEL KUORTTI OFFERS ANOTHER ANNOTATION OF THE HISTORICAL
FACT WHICH RUSHDIE’S FICTIONAL EPISODE IS BASED UPON:
A similar tradition is recorded, where the Muhammad employed ‘Abd-Allah Ibn Abi Sarh as his scribe
But the latter began to make changes in the recitation and finally lost his faith as these verses were accepted by Muhammad
Later ‘Abd-Allah was sentenced to death and pardoned in the same way as Salman Farsi
CONCLUSIONuse of indecent language with sacred characters in Islam
the sacred is discussed through everyday language of the streets
dared to challenge the supremacy of faith in the minds of millions
more universal statement: the way power corrupts ideals, because
every person has both angelic and satanic potential.
conflict between fact and fantasy, truth and falsehood
THANK YOU