Translating the Self in Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir

• Authors: Embabi Doaa
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

This paper examines the link between the notion of ‘cultural translation,’ initially introduced by Homi Bhabha in The Location of Culture (1994), and autobiographical writing by a translingual writer: Edward Said’s memoir, Out of Place (1999). As an ArabAmerican intellectual, Said culminates his writing career with a memoir, in which he represents the educational years of his life. Said shows through the narrative that the interplay between Arabic and English language and cultures strongly infl uenced the formation of his identity. Thus, this paper explores reading his memoir as an attempt at ‘cultural translation’ according to which diff erence is not necessarily trapped in binary oppositions of self/other; East/West; home/foreign land – to name only a few. Difference in this context rather opens a possibility for more fluid boundaries allowing for negotiation and change.

Keywords

EN

Edward Said; postcolonial; writing; memoir; interpretation; translation

• Publisher: Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw
• Journal: Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies
• Year: 2017
• Issue: 26/1
• Pages: 149-164

Contributors

author

Embabi Doaa

• Ain Shams University

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