The Arabic word for literature is adab, which originally means good manners and decent behaviour as stated previously. Therefore, literature in Arabic culture is strongly related to values and morals; as Ahmad Majdoubah asserts, it “fulfils a vital function of fostering and strengthening the already existing values” (84). Moreover, linking literature to morals and values is common to many cultures, including Western ones. However, the Arabic literary tradition does not always accommodate writing that challenges existing values. In contrast, Western literary writers and critics tend to appreciate creativity and genius in writing that challenge norms and the status quo. Thus, translating Western literary works that often challenge Western norms and confront established values into Arabic warrants serious inspection on many levels. Examples of such works include 1984 by George Orwell and Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Arab translators may avoid such works because they have their
personal censorship impulses or those imposed by publishers and authorities. In addition, they usually are translating to be read by an Arab audience which has its own values and ideas of censorship on what to read or allow their dependents to read. If they translate a work such as Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses that is
controversial in terms of morality and religious faith, they may risk not finding a publisher to promote their books. Governments and authorities also ban books and translations they deem inappropriate or unsuitable such as E. L. James’s Fifty Shades trilogy, the series of erotic novels that includes sadistic sexual practices that are unethical and immoral to some readers. In short, any book or part of a book that challenges the Arabic moral system and ideals is dismissed and rejected to avoid confusion, especially for young readers.
To explain the sudden shift in focus from present day to the Victorian era, this section will support the argument that contemporary Arab culture is similar to that of English society of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in terms of the function of literature, among other matters. The present state of Arabic translation of English literary texts needs a brief overview of the previous didactic function of literature in England to justify the selection of translated texts and the strategies applied in
comparing the two cultures in relation to the reception of literary works and audience expectation. Samuel Johnson, in his “Rambler No. 4”, demonstrating a keenly
Platonic concern with the role of literature in the education of the young, argues that a consideration of the work’s impact is imperative given that books are written “chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct and introductions into life” (21). He contends that the “highest degree of reverence should be paid to youth”, as a result of which “nothing indecent should be suffered to
function of literature extends to the Victorian Age, where literature was expected to have a pedagogical function according to The Broadview Anthology of British
Literature because of the rapid changes and upheavals that faced people following the Industrial Revolution; hence, “Many Victorian readers sought moral and ethical guidance from their authors, who assumed—or were thrust into— the role of ‘secular clerics’ with varying degree of confidence and authority” (LXXII). In that regard, the Victorian era shared a perspective of literature with that of the current Arabic
perception. Arabic literature clearly serves a more moralistic and conservative function in its society than Western literature does currently in its culture.
In addition, Islam has often been regarded as the defining aspect of Arabic
culture, and Western scholars have observed the influence of Islamic values on Arabic literature. Reuven Snir, for example, states that “Islam, as a system of symbols,
represents the most significant factor in the explanation of Arab cultural, intellectual, and literary history since the seventh century” (78). Indeed, since the revelation of the Quran, literature and literary products began to be influenced by Islamic principles and guided by a cultural heritage that sometimes came to be held as sacred as
religious law. Literature has always had significant value and esteem in Arabic culture even before Islam; ancient Arabs especially appreciated poetry such as Al-Mu'allaqat, which translates as “The Hanging Poems” because these poems, by virtue of their superiority, were hung on the walls of the sacred Al-Kaaba in Makkah. In fact, the Quran is often considered a miracle because it challenges the poet’s abilities. In the pre-Islamic period, also known as Ayyame Jahilliya (Age of Ignorance), literature often reflects tribal history, important incidents in the tribe’s history, and their heroic actions in battles with other tribes, and hence it serves as an archive for the Arabs. Each tribe had its own poet to glorify their victories and record their history. Poets
also composed remarkable love poems. Pre-Islamic prose literature served a similar function. In their discussion of the pre-Islamic Arabic literature, Abu Bakkar Siddique and Mobarak Hussain argue that the prose literature of the pre-Islamic period
consisted of orally circulated narratives of battle, asserting that: “These narratives mainly dealt with wars among various contending tribes, some of them are based on the tales of their deities while others depicted, to some extent, aspects of their socio- cultural and religious activities” (103). However, the Islamic period marked the influence of the Quran on Arabic literature, which then steadily acquired Islamic fervour.
Since most Western literary works are presented to monolingual Arabic audiences through translation, these works have to undergo a selection process that requires some filtering for moral purposes. This censorship is practiced normally by publishers or authorities. There were restrictions on what was translated; as Snir asserts, “The dominance of Islamist discourse in the literary system during the last century [the twentieth century] was reflected through censorship and banning of books for religious considerations and for the harm they might do to public morality” (82). Perhaps the most famous example of banned books is the previously mentioned work of Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses. The list of banned books in many Arab countries include Lolita by the Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov and the children’s novel Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman and Diana
Souza. Hence, censorship extended to translation practices and eventually restricted translators and publishers during most of the twentieth century. As a result, literary texts that were translated were adapted to fit into Islamic and Arabic cultural doctrine.
In fact, the list of banned books and novels in the Arab world is extended and constantly changing, as it is in other countries. Cyberspace and the existence of the
Internet made access to these forbidden books and novels easy. A banned book nowadays only indicates that it is not permitted to be sold and marketed in local bookshops, but they can be reached and accessed in many other ways because of the expansion of media and Internet and people’s increased mobility around the world. No government or authority can fully monitor and prevent its people from reading such books.