Ophelia’s Arab journey : Shakespeare’s women in translation and appropriation

Abstract

This thesis is an inaugural study of adaptations and appropriations of three Shakespeare plays in the Arab world that examines the plays primarily through the lens of gender. It addresses gender among characters and theater practitioners alike: both theatrical representation and the field of cultural production. It thematizes the issue of female agency in the Arab plays and productions and examines how female characters are different compared to their Shakespearean counterparts and how their agency changes in the processes of translation, adaptation, and performance in Arabic and subsequent translation of some of the Arabic plays into English and their performances in a non-Arab context. It contributes to the knowledge of the growing field of Arab Shakespeare and Arab theater. It finds that female characters and the power they possess can change because of changes in translation. They can become more or less dynamic depending on how much dialogue they have in the play. Female agency also changes with the genre change from tragedy to comedy as comedy offers more space for subversive behavior. This study also briefly looks at the role of women in the cultural production of Arab Shakespeare and the changes they made to the texts they directed. Overall, the thesis breaks new ground in presenting a more nuanced view of the role Arab women play in their societies and the changes they are trying to implement despite the challenges they face in a patriarchal society but offers no easy solution to the problems the patriarchy produces for women in particular.