Diwan: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab

Resistance and negotiation in translating religious identity: A study on the Arabic translation of Gadis Kretek

2025-07-31T10:23:47+07:00

The difference in religious cultural backgrounds encourages translators to make efforts to resist and negotiate when translating religious terms in literary works. Resistance focuses on preserving the original meaning, while negotiation adjusts the meaning to align with the target culture's understanding. Based on that translation strategy, this study analyzes the resistance and negotiation of religious identity in translating the novel Gadis Kretek into Arabic. Using a qualitative method with interpretative-comparative analysis, this research examines the religious identity in both the source and target texts, particularly through linguistic units representing religious terms. The data was taken from the novel Gadis Kretek and its Arabic translation Fatātu al-Sajāir. Data was collected by identifying religious terms in the texts, categorizing them according to an existing framework, and comparing their translations. The analysis focuses on the patterns of resistance and negotiation in translating these terms. The results reveal two primary patterns in the translation of Gadis Kretek. First, resistance, where religious terms are maintained in their original form or translated literally to preserve their sacredness. Second is negotiation, where adjustments are made to ensure the religious terms align with the target audience’s cultural understanding. Resistance is influenced by the similarity of belief systems between Indonesian Islam and Arab Islam, while negotiation arises due to differences in cultural contexts. These findings contribute to understanding religious translation in multilingual Islamic contexts and offer strategies for culturally sensitive translation practices. This study concludes that translation serves as a cultural bridge, preserving the core meaning while adjusting it to the target context.

Terrorism discourse in popular Arab media: Representation of the Taliban in CNN Arabic youtube headlines

2025-12-16T09:14:50+07:00

In August and September 2021, the Taliban emerged as a prominent subject in many media during the Afghan leadership transition. While prior research has examined the media's portrayal of the Taliban from diverse viewpoints and methodologies, no investigation has concentrated on their representation as the actor in the discourse. This study aims to investigate the representation of the Taliban in mainstream media, thereby addressing the existing research gap. The Taliban news headlines from the CNN Arabic YouTube channel, from August to September 2021, were utilized as data sources in a qualitative-descriptive study methodology. Theo van Leeuwen's discourse analysis was employed to delineate actor representation by mapping inclusion and exclusion tactics. The findings demonstrate that CNN Arabic employs exclusion and inclusion in its representation of the Taliban. Exclusion arises in strategy nominalisation, whereas inclusion occurs in strategies of identification, abstraction, determination, differentiation, and categorization. CNN Arabic depicts the Taliban unfavourably through a severe and hyperbolic storyline. This representation is grounded in political objectives aimed at steering public discourse and provoking insurrection against the Taliban. These findings enhance media discourse analysis by identifying the Taliban as the primary actor, hence expanding the comprehension of representation tactics employed to influence public perception. This study highlights the importance of critical media literacy, particularly in understanding the interplay between ideology, political objectives, and the representation practices of actors in international conflict reporting.

Cultural dilution in indirect Arabic translation of Indonesian popular literature: Laskar Pelangi to ‘Asākir Qaws Quzaḥ

2025-12-19T06:21:28+07:00

Literary translation involves the transfer of linguistic meaning, as well as the cultural values and identities inherent in the source text. Translation difficulties increase in the realm of indirect translation, particularly when the target text is rendered through an intermediary language. This phenomenon is observed in the translation of Andrea Hirata's novel Laskar Pelangi into Arabic, ‘Asākir Qaws Quzaḥ, utilizing the English version, The Rainbow Troops. This translation process exemplifies multi-level translation, which may result in cultural dilution. This study aims to identify and analyse the manifestations of cultural dilution in indirect translation. This research employs a qualitative descriptive methodology within the framework of a descriptive translation study. The data sources comprise three parallel texts: Laskar Pelangi as the source text, The Rainbow Troops as the intermediary text, and ‘Asākir Qaws Quzaḥ as the target text. Data were gathered via document analysis by identifying cultural terms in the form of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, and subsequently classified according to Newmark's cultural categories. The analysis was performed comparatively to identify changes in cultural significance. This study's results reveal that cultural dilution occurs in three primary forms: cultural deletion, cultural substitution, and cultural neutralization. The three forms illustrate the systematic and cumulative erosion of Indonesian cultural distinctiveness resulting from indirect translation. This research contributes to indirect translation studies by offering an analytical framework for cultural dilution and emphasising the significance of ideological awareness in cross-cultural literary translation practices.

Women's struggle in patriarchal society: Relation of gender, social, and economy in Niswah al-Sūq al-'Atīq by Majid Sulaiman

2025-11-22T10:33:08+07:00

In contemporary Arabic literature, gender inequality and patriarchal structures remain underexplored in works written by men. While numerous studies have examined feminist themes in Arabic novels, few have investigated how male authors portray women's social positions through a sociological perspective. This study examines how Majid Sulaiman's Niswah al-Sūq al-’Atīq reflects patriarchal oppression and social realities in Arab society, utilizing Ian Watt's sociological framework of literature. This study employs qualitative descriptive methods through desk research, analyzing the novel's representation of socio-cultural realities, social structures, and gender dynamics. Niswah al-Sūq al-’Atīq serves as a data source and is analyzed using Watt's framework, which examines three dimensions: the author's social context, literature as a reflection of society, and the social function of literary works. This study analyzes key quotes from the novel, supported by news sources documenting similar cases. The research findings reveal that the female characters in Niswah al-Sūq al-’Atīq embody three interrelated dimensions of patriarchal oppression: economic inequality that traps families in a cycle of debt, gender norms that limit women's mobility and autonomy, and complex social relations in which the market simultaneously reinforces class hierarchies while enabling women's solidarity and resistance. These findings suggest that literature functions as a critical cultural document capable of exposing and challenging gender inequalities in the Middle Eastern context. This study contributes to gender-sensitive readings of Arabic fiction by demonstrating that Western literary sociological frameworks remain analytically productive when recontextualized in non-Western cultural contexts, while revealing how women exercise agency and resistance within patriarchal constraints.

من الكبت إلى التحرّر: قراءة نفسية نسوية في الصدمة وتشكّل الفاعلية الأنثوية في رواية عودة المكبوت لنوال السعداوي

2025-05-07T18:07:00+07:00

تنطلق هذه الدراسة من الحاجة إلى إعادة قراءة تمثيل صورة المرأة في رواية عودة المكبوت للكاتبة نوال السعداوي، ولا سيّما فيما يتعلّق بتصوير صدمة التحرّش الجنسي ومسار تعافي الذات النسوية في مواجهة الهيمنة الأبوية. وعلى الرغم من أنّ الدراسات السابقة لأعمال السعداوي ركّزت في الغالب على الطابع الراديكالي لتمرّد الشخصيات النسوية، يكشف هذا البحث أنّ نموذج المقاومة في هذه الرواية يتّسم بطابع أكثر تأمّلاً وعمقاً نفسياً. وتتمثّل إشكاليّة الدراسة في الكيفيّة التي تخوض بها أمل، الشخصيّة الرئيسة، رحلة مواجهة الصدمة وصولاً إلى تحقيق الحرية والاستقلالية بوصفها امرأة. تعتمد الدراسة المنهج النوعي على القراءة النصيّة الدقيقة، مستندةً إلى النظرية النسوية والتحليل النفسي ودراسات الصدمة، بما يتيح تحليلاً معمّقاً لمراحل التجربة النفسية التي تمرّ بها أمل. وتُظهر نتائج البحث أنّ تحوّل الشخصيّة يجري عبر مراحل متتابعة، تبدأ بتعرّضها للتحرّش الجنسي، مروراً بالرثاء وإدراك بنية النظام الأبوي القامع، ثم تطوير وعي نقدي بالذات، فالانتقال إلى المقاومة على المستويين النفسي والرمزي، وصولاً إلى إعادة تشكيل هويتها في نهاية المطاف كامرأة حرّة وفاعلة. وتُبرز هذه النتائج اختلاف هذا النموذج عن أنماط المقاومة الراديكالية التي تميّزت بها شخصيات السعداوي في أعمال سابقة، كما تُوسّع مفهوم الفاعلية النسوية بوصفها عمليّة شفاء نفسي تحويليّة. وعلى الصعيد النظري، تُسهم الدراسة في تعزيز الرؤية التي ترى أنّ صدمة المرأة ومقاومتها لا تتجلّيان دائماً في صور صدامية مباشرة، بل قد تتجسّدان في عمليات إعادة بناء الذات بطرائق هادئة ولكن عميقة الأثر. أمّا على الصعيد التطبيقي، فتؤكّد الدراسة أهميّة التعليم القائم على الجندر وتعزيز الوعي بالصدمة في إقرار الخبرات الذاتية للمرأة بوصفها شكلاً مشروعاً وفعّالاً من أشكال المقاومة في مواجهة النظام الأبوي.