http://blogs.najah.edu/author/dargmeh71 An-Najah Blogs :: prof. of literature and theory en-us Fri, 19 Apr 2024 10:16:42 IDT Fri, 19 Apr 2024 10:16:42 IDT [email protected] [email protected] http://blogs.najah.edu/staff/dargmeh71/article/The-translation-of-legal-contracts-Towards-a-more-pragmatic-outcomePublished ArticlesAbstract This study falls into two parts The first part aims at demonstrating how pragmatic and functional considerations are important in legal translation The corpus the researchers relied on consisted of nine translated versions of three authentic contracts A Real-Estate Contract a Contract of Lease and an Employment Contract were commissioned to be translated by three professional translators certified by the Palestinian Ministry of Justice asking them to translate these texts the way they would usually deal with legally binding official documents The second part explores the relevance of Vermeer\s Skopos theory to the translation of contracts through a small pilot study that compares the work of translation students with a broad theoretical background and that of a professional translator uninformed about theories of translation A group of graduate students of translation and applied linguistics and a professional translator were assigned to translate a \Power of Attorney\ legal text from English into Arabic They were all asked to translate the same text into a different context where it would be performing a new function This study demonstrates how standardized legal language features can still be tamed to serve the ultimate goal of successfully communicating the message across languages as intended and as commissioned Unlike previous studies that were devoted to systemizing and mathematizing legal translation this study focuses on communicative and functional approaches to contractual translation between English and Arabichttp://blogs.najah.edu/staff/dargmeh71/article/Cultural-Coding-and-Decoding-Practices-in-Toni-Morrisonrsquos-Song-Of-Solomon-and-Tar-BabyPublished ArticlesThis paper falls into history and memory studies in the post-colonial tradition particularly the controversy over the pastness of the past and its relevance irrelevance or partial relevance in the present The paper marks out moments of reallocation of the recourses of history and memory in two Morrison texts: Song of Solomon 1977 and Tar Baby 1981 In addition to the concepts of racial injustice economic exploitation of the subaltern commitment to black history and cultural heritage all common themes in the critical canon on Toni Morrison the novels also represent a conflict between several discourses of value coding within the black community itself The divergence between these discourses opens a space in which members of the black community can look beyond a cruel past and a stagnant present to rethink the way the black society organizes itself a move which to a significant extent determines its social economic and political condition in the present By introducing alternative social meanings Morrison engages in a multi-layered cultural coding which questions hegemonic practices beyond which it becomes hard for members of the black community to move freely It is these deconstructive moments that the paper brings into focus through an examination of the emergent cultural formations in the two textshttp://blogs.najah.edu/staff/dargmeh71/article/Writing-the-Nation-Formation-and-TransformationPublished ArticlesHow do all these words live? How do they grow and blossom? We still feed them tears and memories; We feed them metaphors and wine M Darwish Roses and Dictionaries And some of us expect literature to provide us with comfort and consolation or at least a few moments of mercy and grace or at the very least a little distance and perspective But I have neither comfort nor consolation and I have no distance I tell you that what was is no more Oz Of Dreams and Dreamers This paper discusses the: shifting conception of nationalism and the role literature plays in the evolution of a national character in the work of two renowned writers Palestines Mahmoud Darwish and Israel:; Amos Oz Many a time in their work Oz and Darwish stop to ponder the value d their writing to them individually as well as to their respective societies They obsessively return to the question Why Write? Each unequivocally describes the collective value of literary and non-literary work Each denounces any work that questions a nations existence This paper engages the functionality of writing as Oz and Darwish perceive and practice it I shall address this question within the context of literary and political theory particularly focusing on three moments: Fredric Jamesons discussion of national allegory Benedict Andersons understanding of imagined communities and Homi Bhabhas focus on modern hybrid nations I examine these three with the claim that their premises on producing and interpreting cultural artifacts are not entirely transferable to the Middle East context Given the fast succession of events in the area and the consequent formation and transformation of national discourse the authors do not espouse a set of fixed national ideologies The cultural condition remains circumstantial and contingent marking both ruptures and continuities at significant momentshttp://blogs.najah.edu/staff/dargmeh71/article/quotAnd-We-Are-of-Clay-and-Lightquot-Palestinian-National-Memory-on-the-Border-Between-Myth-and-HistoryPublished ArticlesAbdel Karim Mohammed currently works as an assistant professo of comparative literature and c ill ral studies at An-Najah National University He teaches Cultural Theory Liter ry Criticism Comparative Literature and PostColonial Literature His research interests are in comparative cultur al analysis and post-Marxist literary theory He takes the definition of a cultural text beyond the traditional one of seeking material for analysis on the shelves of libraries The definition expands to include ordinary conversations media presentations images and photographs classroom discussions and other such cultural phenomena One finds there a first-hand unofficial narrative of cultural transitions and evolutions And We Are of Clay and Light: Palestinian National Memory on the Border Between Myth and History This paper analyzes the cultural productions of a world-renowned narrator who has contributed heavily to forging anl re-forging Palestinian national memory Mahmud DarVishs writing does not only contribute to U1 nations creJtion but also restructures national discourse to introduce altematives Much of whai he said Cl I wrote is reality-bound and historically-conditioned In his later work 1990stension appears o~er the interpretation of the national narrative as formed in the political and cultural discourse of the sixti~s Three questions arise the first a pragmatic one: is the end to wandering possible? The second question isa national one: can the outcome of Oslo Accords deliver thenatlon constructSd in early nationalist discoorse? The third and final question is an ethical one: must new generations inherit the responsibility of their ancestors? The concept that reappears compulsively now under this form now under another is what to do with the physical memory of houses and villages the refugees fled in 1948 At this juncture the writer presents the reconstruction of earlier nationalist thought as both continuity and rupture transient state les~; conditioned by history As we progress in time we notice that the value of literary works shifts from traditional Marxist functionalism attuned to the national project to a dialogic structure where the comfort zone of uniformity in national culture dramatically shrinks The lines that earlier defined the nations boundary start to fade The speaker is out of time and place The utterance becomes a zone of tension symptomatic of the memory crisis Palestinians have been living since Oslo Darwish situates his poetic voice on the- border between myth and history- clay and light- a space that allows for rupture and continuity at once inside and outside history In this liminal territory there is room for both remembering and forgetting and his verse becomes correspondingly paradoxical Parallel 10 the evolution in nation;31 politics and culture there runs a corresponding transformation in the significance of imagery across time The dominant symbols recur marking the continuation of themes and trends introduced in his early work As Darwish enters the realm of atemporal creative memory symbols develop into a more floating and