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

the while scorning their hosts for this very abundance that they saw as a
lack of cultural refinement.
This passage illustrates several aspects of post-colonial narrative prose previously
identified in La Baroudeuse. It claims that having declared their belief in "liberté,
fraternité, egalité" and abolished slavery, French colonists hypocritically behaved
as masters and benefited from the service of slaves, even if they did not own
them. Revising the criteria by which cultivation is judged, this passage parodies
the notion that French colonialism was motivated by a civilizing mission. Neither
in the initial nor final versions did the translator make any attempt to mitigate the
possible conflict between the ideology of the narrative and that of the LC2
readers. In this respect, the translation remained faithful to the original that would
have been equally if not more counter-discursive for some of the original readers.
No change was made in the portrayal of the protagonist's character. The
original portrays Lalla Kenza as covertly rebellious and unforgiving. The passage
in example 3 illustrates her penchant for cruelty and encroaching madness.
3 o: Après avoir exacerbé son désir et l'avoir mené au bord du précipice,
elle l'y abandonnait, sourde à ses appels, ignorant ses prières. De cette
façon, elle échappait à la folie qui l'habitait et sourdait en elle, comme un
mal incurable. Son inconditionnelle complaisance la confirmait dans sa
cruauté: elle faisait de lui un être tout indiqué pour la servitude. (35)
3 i and f: After having exacerbated his desire and led him to the edge of
the precipice, she left him there, turning a deaf ear to his calls, ignoring his
entreaties. In this way, she escaped the insanity that lived and welled up in
her like an incurable disease. His unconditional complacency fed her
cruelty: she developed his aptitude for subservience.
Few Anglophones have seen or heard an Arab woman offer an image of such a
powerful and passionate Muslim Arab woman. Arab women of North Africa do
not often have the opportunity to express their own views in English language
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