Translating Harassment: Cross-Cultural Reconstruction of the Feminist Identity in Translated Fiction

This research explores the representation of sexual harassment and the identity of the victim in translated literature, a largely uninvestigated area. The study focuses on the English translations of Khadija Mastoor's Urdu novel, *Aangan*, which presents a feminist perspective on women's experiences in a patriarchal society. The novel centers on Aliya, who is sexually harassed by her cousin Jamil. The research questions address the translation strategies used, the representation of the harassed woman in the translations, and how the translators' perspectives are reflected in their work. The significance of this study lies in understanding how translation can shape the perception of gender-based violence and the identity of victims across cultures. Sexual harassment, defined as unwanted sexually inappropriate conduct causing distress, is a significant feminist issue, highlighted by movements like #MeToo. Although prevalent globally, including in Pakistan, the issue often goes unreported, especially within families, due to societal pressures to protect family honor. *Aangan*, portraying Aliya's harassment within her own home, provides a rich case study to examine how this sensitive subject is handled in translation. The two English translations, *The Inner Courtyard* by Hussain and *The Women's Courtyard* by Rockwell, offer contrasting perspectives and translation strategies to analyze.

Existing research extensively covers sexual harassment in Pakistani novels, analyzing its depiction and impact on female characters in works like Sidhwa's *Ice Candy Man*. Studies have examined how societal structures and patriarchal norms regulate women's lives and contribute to their victimization. Fewer studies, however, explore how the issue of harassment is translated and how this process impacts the representation of the victim. Some relevant work includes analyses of translations of Al-Shaykh's *Hikayat Zahrah* and Saadaoui's writings, noting alterations and omissions in translated texts that affect the portrayal of women's sexuality and experiences of harassment. A study on the Chinese translations of *The Color Purple* highlights how translators' gender can influence their handling of rape scenes. This current study uniquely fills a gap by analyzing the representation of sexually harassed women within the specific context of Pakistani novels and their translation into English.

This qualitative study adopts a constructivist paradigm, focusing on how translators construct their understanding of sexual harassment. The corpus includes Mastoor's *Aangan* and its two English translations (*The Inner Courtyard* and *The Women's Courtyard*). Corpus linguistics methods, specifically NLTK, are employed for systematic data extraction. NLTK is used to analyze the frequency of character names (Aliya and Jamil) and concordances based on their interactions, providing a quantitative element to the analysis of qualitative data. The data underwent cleaning and processing (removing spaces, digits, and symbols) and normalization techniques, including tokenization, stemming, and lemmatization. The concordances, tagged according to Fairclough's three-dimensional model, were analyzed for linguistic features reflecting gender ideologies, specifically focusing on experiential, relational, and expressive values. This framework is supplemented with feminist translation theory to examine how translators' gender and ideological positions shape their interpretation and translation choices. Themes emerged focusing on Jamil's representation as a physical assaulter and stalker, and Aliya's reactions to harassment. The paratexts (afterwords, etc.) were also critically analyzed for additional insight into the translators' perspectives. The frequency analysis of character names helps illustrate how the translators’ strategies emphasize or downplay certain aspects of the story. Manual tagging of concordances allowed for a deeper analysis of linguistic choices and their ideological underpinnings.

The frequency analysis revealed that Hussain's translation significantly reduced the mentions of Jamil, while Rockwell increased Aliya's mentions. Analysis of concordances related to Jamil's actions showed Rockwell used intensified language (e.g., "grabbing," "pressed") to depict his assaults, while Hussain minimized or romanticized them, omitting parts of the text describing physical assault or using euphemisms. In representing Jamil as a stalker, Rockwell employed strategies like substitution and hijacking, while Hussain used literal translation, addition, and omission, softening his image. Regarding Aliya's reactions, Rockwell maintained or magnified the portrayal of her distress, using intensified choices. Conversely, Hussain used mitigating choices, downplaying her distress and suggesting tolerance for the harassment. Rockwell's afterword further highlighted the issue of harassment and the vulnerability of women, using strong terms like "stalker," "sexual harasser," and "gaslighter." This strategic use of supplementary commentary provided direct criticism and commentary not present in the original text. The differences in the translators' approaches strongly suggest their subjective, culturally influenced interpretations of the situation.

The findings show a clear contrast between the two translations, highlighting how translation isn't a neutral act but reflects the translator's perspective, including their gender awareness and cultural context. Rockwell's translation exhibits a stronger feminist approach, actively intervening to amplify the voices and experiences of women. This aligns with feminist translation theory, aiming to challenge patriarchal norms and make female voices more visible. In contrast, Hussain's translation, while not explicitly denying the harassment, de-emphasizes it. This might be due to different societal norms and tolerance levels of sexual harassment in Western versus Eastern cultures. The time gap between the translations (17 years), and the increasing global awareness of sexual harassment may have also influenced Rockwell's more sensitive and interventionist approach. The contrasting approaches highlight the complex interplay between individual translator perspectives, cultural factors, and the aims of feminist translation theory.

This study demonstrates the significant impact of translator perspective on the representation of sexual harassment in translated fiction. The contrasting approaches of Rockwell and Hussain illuminate the non-neutral nature of translation and the potential of feminist translation to challenge patriarchal representations. Rockwell's interventionist approach serves as an effective example of feminist translation practices. Future research could expand the corpus, including more source texts and translators, to explore the generalizability of these findings and better understand the relationship between cultural context and translation choices. Investigating how these different interpretations affect readers across various cultural backgrounds would also be a valuable contribution.

The study's focus on two translations of a single novel limits the generalizability of its findings. Further research with a larger and more diverse corpus is needed to explore the extent to which the observed patterns are representative of broader trends in the translation of sexual harassment in literature. The reliance on a particular theoretical framework (CDA and feminist translation theory) might influence the interpretation of the results. Exploring alternative analytical frameworks could provide additional insights.