Translation and Shaping the Arab Identity in a Post-colonial Globalized World: A Multi-disciplinary Approach

Abstract

Conflicts over identity are old and they emerged explicitly during the European colonial expansion in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries and they accelerated remarkably with a recent globalization wave that started in the early1990s. Philosophers, psychologists, mathematicians, logicians, politicians, among others, have found in the term "identity" a vivid niche where they can approach and research the issue. The relationship between identity, globalization, language and translation is so steadfast that a fresh perspective on the role of translation in this respect is urgently required. Hence comes the present research. It hypothesizes that there is a conflict between Arab identity and globalization and this is manifested in the role played by translation. This paper is an interdisciplinary examination of the role of translation in shaping the Arab identity in a post-colonial, globalized world, taking concepts from post-colonial translation studies, pragmatics, post-colonial theory of international relations and Samuel Huntington's theory of the Clash of Civilizations. It employs a dual methodology of content analysis and comparative study between English texts and their Arabic translations. It aims to reveal the nature of this role. Through the analysis of data, it concludes that translation has played a 'shameful' role in shaping the identity of the Arab World in the post-colonial era and that globalization is a new form of Western colonialism which targets the identities of other nations.