The Role of Social Agents in the Translation and Rewriting of Children’s Literature: A Bourdieusian Perspective on Arabic Translations of Gulliver’s Travels

This thesis examines the development of the field of children’s literature translations into Arabic from a sociological perspective based on the sociological theory developed by Pierre Bourdieu. It investigates the translators and the publishers as the main social agents who shaped the final product of the translation. Drawing on Bourdieu’s main concepts; field, habitus and capital, this thesis takes different translations of Gulliver’s Travels as a testing ground in tracing the developments that took place in the field of children’s literature over the time period 1873-2017, to see to which extent the translators are responsible for the final product of the translation. The translations of Gulliver’s Travels to young Arab readers constitute a productive case study from a sociological perspective for a number of reasons. Firstly, each translation is embedded in a different social, cultural and political setting. Secondly, the production of the texts cannot be understood without considering the active roles of the agents who produced it. These agents were not only influenced by political and social factors, but were also influenced by their dispositions and social trajectory which shaped their final products to some extent.
Considering three centuries, the thesis aims to shed light on the genesis of the field in Egypt during the nineteenth century (1801-1900), the evolution of the field in Egypt during the twentieth century (1901-2000), and the publishing boom that the field witnessed in UAE during the twenty-first century (2001-2017). The status of the field is addressed in each century through examining the socio-political factors which affected the production of translations in the field of children’s literature. These factors are analysed in relation to how they influenced the structure of the field, its boundaries, and the capitals available for the social agents. The influences of these factors are examined to see the extent to which they affect the practices of each translator/ adapter/ rewriter of Gulliver’s Travels published in each century.
Each of the previous Arabic versions of Gulliver’s Travels is examined to provide further insights into the dynamics between the producer’s habitus and the prevalent ‘rules of game’ that governed the field. The focus is particularly on how this interwoven dynamic is manifested in each case study. The thesis also sheds light on how retranslation(s) can be motivated by different reasons in both the field of children’s literature and the field of adult literature. A retranslation of Gulliver’s Travels (1990) to adults is used as a case study to confirm the quest of distinction in the literary field. This thesis attempts to understand a translation as a socially-situated activity.