Abstract

Informed by the theoretical framework mainly derived from Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural theory applied to translation, this thesis looks into the English and French translations of Alaa al-Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building. Addressing the issue of the author’s and the translator’s habitus, we argue that Alaa al-Aswany’s habitus as a left-wing Egyptian intellectual influenced the way he has handled his characters. We also explain how Humphrey Davies’s habitus as a professional American translator contracted by the American University in Cairo Press affects the way he renders the novel in English, and that Gilles Gauthier’s enjoyment of the novel finds, likewise, its explanation in his habitus in French. To probe yet another critical role in translation, we grapple with questions concerning the book industry and the power relations governing the international circulation of books. In this respect, we shed light on the role of the English version publishers- the American University in Cairo Press and Harper Perennial - and the French publisher Actes Sud, using the concepts of symbolic capital and field theory of Bourdieu. Since the context of reception determines the potential meaning(s) generated by a given literary work, we also look into the verbal and the non-verbal elements, such as illustrations, prefaces and footnotes that accompany the novel and study some articles/reviews of the work in the Western press to show how they were intended to shape the reader’s response.