Hassen, Rim (2012) English translations of the Quran by women : different or derived? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The study of gender as an analytical tool in Translation Studies has highlighted women's position as translators and creators of meaning and has opened the way for questioning established realities, "truths" and norms created by the dominant male voice. The aim of this research is to study four English translations of the Quran by women: The Quran, Arabic text with Corresponding English Meaning (1995) by Umm Muhammad, The Light of Dawn (1999) by Camille Adams Helminski, The Holy Quran: Translation with Commentary (2006) by Taheereh Saffarzadeh and The Sublime Quran (2007) by Laleh Bakhtiar, in order to determing whether these women translators are challenging or reproducing patriarchal gender hierarchies through their renditions of the Sacred Text of Islam. An important second thread is to investigate the assumption that a translator's feminine gender automatically results or leads in/to a woman-centred or feminist reading of the source text.

Considering that scholars working on gender and translation have focused on various elements of the translation process, in this study, my research questions revolve around four main areas, namely (1) the role of paratexts, (2) the extent of interventions in the Sacred Text (3) linguistic choices, and finally (4) interpretation of gender-related terms. In order to address these questions, I will adopt a critical and comparative analysis between the four individual English translations of the Quran by women, the original Arabic text, and, occasionally, other English versions translated by men. The main findings reveal that there is a deep divide between translations produced by women translators living in Muslim majority countries and those living in the United States. Finally, this research suggests that the study of women's role as translators of religious texts in different cultural, social and religious settings could help produce a more nuanced and critical view of the impact of the translator's gender on his/her work.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Qurʼan -- Translations into English -- History and criticism, Qurʼan -- Translating, Women translators, Feminism -- Religious aspects -- Islam
Official Date:	July 2012
Dates:	Date Event July 2012 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Ali, Shaheen Sardar; Gilmore, John T.
Extent:	iii, 290 leaves : illustrations.
Language:	eng

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