An Entropic Image of Islam in Paul Bowles’ “The Fqih”: A Semio-Pragmatic Approach
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 2, June 2023
Pages:
14-18
Received:
6 September 2023
Accepted:
26 September 2023
Published:
9 October 2023
Abstract: The study borrows the term "entropy" from physics—the second law of thermodynamics—to refer to the development of a chaotic concept of Islam in Paul Bowles’ short stories, particularly, “The Fqih”. To analyze the text and dig out this conceptual entropy, the paper will draw on two analytical strategies: Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiological approach, namely, the study of the paradigmatic and syntagmatic levels of the text in order to trace the meaning and the value of the word Fqih both in its cultural context and through its dynamic function along the narrative. Second, the analysis will apply some elements of “Speech Acts” theory, founded by J. L Austin, and John Searle, basically, the illocutionary and perlocutionary acts, so as to clarify how the Fqih’s words contribute to the development of the main incidents in the story. Moreover, the story itself will be treated as a discourse addressing the readers. The course of the article, then, tends to be a process of applying both structural and discursive tools, underlining their functions and interaction within and without the short story. The focal point behind these procedures is to discuss the following questions: How was a chaotic image of Islam elaborated within the texture of the short story, “The Fqih”? What could be the source of such entropic construct? and what would be the impact of this textual phenomenon on both Moroccan and Western readers? Answering these questions aims at unveiling analytically how cultural differences could contribute to structuring an entropic image of Islam via literary narratives. The final question, then, is how to put constraints on the flow of such misinterpretation of Islam?
Abstract: The study borrows the term "entropy" from physics—the second law of thermodynamics—to refer to the development of a chaotic concept of Islam in Paul Bowles’ short stories, particularly, “The Fqih”. To analyze the text and dig out this conceptual entropy, the paper will draw on two analytical strategies: Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiological approach...
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Research Article
Farouk Goweda’s Romantic and Political Poetry in English
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 2, June 2023
Pages:
19-26
Received:
17 September 2023
Accepted:
7 October 2023
Published:
28 October 2023
Abstract: This paper aims at analyzing three poems of the great Egyptian poet Farouk Goweda and how the translators were able to transfer the poet’s vision and voice from Arabic into English. This is a unique experience as translating poetry has always been one of the most difficult genres to translate from one language to another. But what makes this experience less difficult is that it is carried out by two poets, for me as a native speaker of Arabic in addition to writing in English and my friend and great poet Andy Fogle whose native language is English. To achieve this objective, the thematic analytic approach will be adopted in the light of the theory of cultural translation. We agreed to work on translating some poems of the great Egyptian poet Farouk Goweda as an influential figure in the Arabic and Egyptian literature. These three poems are This My Country No Longer My Country, Forgetting and Who Said Oil Is Worth More Than Blood? Two of them are political or realistic poems and one is romantic to see how Goweda masters both forms, and how the English reader appreciates them. These three poems were published in the United States of America in the Anmly Magazine, issue 28, 2018. We have been working on translating Goweda’s poetry since 2015, starting with his poem Cause, which was published in Rhino Poetry, after that “Travelers, Strangers’ Cross, and Mirage were published in The Reunion: The Dallas Review, Vol 6, 2016. In 2017 The Image Journal published a new translated poem of Farouk Goweda entitled, Egypt’s Grief. We are going on translating his poems for better mutual understanding and for bridging the gap between the east and the west.
Abstract: This paper aims at analyzing three poems of the great Egyptian poet Farouk Goweda and how the translators were able to transfer the poet’s vision and voice from Arabic into English. This is a unique experience as translating poetry has always been one of the most difficult genres to translate from one language to another. But what makes this experi...
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