الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Conflicts around Qur’ān translation are often kind of locus of debates of larger issues. This study focuses on investigating what kind of issues are at stake in these debates as exemplified in the English translation of The Sublime Quran by Laleh Bakhtiar in 2007. It aims at showing how translation as a system has been intersected with other subsystems as proposed by Even Zohar’s Polysystem Theory (1978/1990). That intersection has opened the door for translation studies to include topics of cultural practices in translation such as identity and self-representation. In particular, the study hypothesizes that translation can be used as a tool of a liberal use of Qur’ānic verses to argue for political and social positions. It shows the power of translation in creating an alternative discourse that competes with other religious discourses imposed by dominant religious centers or institutions, a process discussed within the realm of ’Field Theory’ that is advocated by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The current study proposes that the translation of the Noble Qur’ān is a kind of a field in the sense of Bourdieu’s theory, and the power relations among its different agents influence the politics of its translation. As a result, new social constructs are created and propagated reshaping power structures and dynamics within the Muslim community. The study has two dimensions; the first tackles the intercultural, political, and sociological turns in the translation process and the second focuses on analyzing the verses at the textual and extra-textual levels. |