Translating Nouzha Fassi Fihri's La Baroudeuse: A Case Study in ...

Fassi Fihri was in a position to raise questions for her fellow citizens from
inside this society and modify the way others perceive people of this culture. I am
in a position to let people of yet another culture--my own--see the similarity in the
types of questions and perceptual revisions proposed in both cultures. The author
aims to cause a difference in perception and behavior. I aim to offer an experience
that might act to modify third party perceptions and behavior, at a time in our
history when communication and modification of behavior is vital for peaceful
international relations.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Other Translations and Translators' Paratexts
Post-colonial narratives by Arab women published in English offer models
of successful translation for this subgenre of literature. In this section I analyze
the paratexts of eight such translations: An Algerian Childhood, A Collection of
Autobiographical Narratives; Distant View of a Minaret; My Grandmother's
Cactus, Stories by Egyptian Women; Year of the Elephant, A Moroccan Woman's
Journey Toward Independence and other storiest; Fantasia, An Algerian
Cavalvade; Women of Sand and Myrrh; The Wiles of Men; and Short Fiction by
Saudi Arabian Women Writers. 7 The paratexts of these works--footnotes,
7 Leïla Sebbar, ed., An Algerian Childhood, A Collection of Autobiographical
Narratives, trans. Marjolijn de Jager (St. Paul, Minnesota: Ruminator Books,
2001); Alifa Rifaat, Distant View of a Minaret, trans. Denys Johnson-Davies
(Oxford: Heinemann, 1988); Marilyn Booth, trans., My Grandmother's Cactus,
Stories by Egyptian Women (London: Quartet Books, 1991); Leila Abouzeid,
20