Translating harassment: cross cultural reconstruction of the feminist identity in translated fiction

Abstract

The issue of the sexual harassment of women is often discussed in academic literature, but how this issue is dealt with translated works has rarely been investigated. Targeting this lacuna, this study analyses the construction of the identity of the sexually harassed woman in two selected translations of a single novel. It also investigates how the translators’ perspectival positions are reflected in the translated versions of the source text. Mastoor’s Urdu novel, Aangan, and its two English translations by Rockwell and Hussain were chosen and used a parallel corpus. NLTK is used for the extraction of frequencies and concordances from this corpus. The data are analysed through critical discourse analysis (CDA), while drawing upon the theoretical assumptions of feminist translation. Both translators used discursive and translation strategies according to their perspectival positions. Rockwell has treated the issue of sexual harassment with sensitivity, whereas Hussain has shown tolerance of it and romanticized this issue. The image of the harassed woman appears maintained or magnified in Rockwell’s text, in which feminist translation strategies of supplementing, hijacking, adding commentary, substituting, deleting, adding and intensifying discursive choices were found to be employed. However, Hussain presented the same gender ideology as the one found in the source text, at times, the image of harassment was found to be de-emphasized in the translated version. She has mainly used the translation strategies of literal translation, omission, and explicitness. Moreover, the discursive processes of foregrounding, mitigated linguistic choices, and nominalisation were also employed. The findings imply that both translated texts depict the translators’ subjectivity, where the Rockwell’s translation seems to highlight the image of sexual harassment of women in Pakistani society.

Introduction

Translating involves rewriting, which is subject to ideological influence and power (Lefevere 2016). This attitude towards translation emerged in the 1990s, when linguistic theories of translation were being questioned (Bassnett and Lefevere 1990), and cultural context was given a higher value in the translation process. The translator’s subjective ideological positions, related to political, cultural, gender, and religious issues, affect the translation process. Thus, the importance of translation in constructing identities is highlighted (Bassnett and Lefevere 1990). Against this backdrop, this study intends to investigate the representation of the harassed woman in the selected translations.

Sexual harassment can be defined as sexually inappropriate conduct towards a person against their consent, which may include persistent unwanted physical contact, causing them physical, mental, and/or emotional distress (The Cambridge English dictionary). It has become a feminist issue as women are mostly the target of harassment. Feminist literature claims that sexual harassment is the most persistent form of discrimination against women (Superson 1993). The #Me-Too movement emphasized the prevalence of harassment of women worldwide. Women are also the victims of harassment in Pakistan. However, the issue of sexual harassment of women is mostly discussed in the context of workplace harassment in Pakistani society. Generally, reported sexual harassment cases happen in the workplace. “The Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2000” is hotly debated in Pakistan. Also debated in the Pakistani context is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which defines sexual harassment as “including such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour as physical contact and advances, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography and sexual demand, whether by words or actions” (Recommendation number 18). Importantly, however, the sexual assault of a woman by a male family member is typically unreported in Pakistan, as women face pressure from their family members to uphold the family’s honour by not reporting such incidents. However, the Pakistani media has highlighted this issue in recent years, by portraying women as victims at the hands of their male family members. For example, the popular drama series Pyar kay Sadqy portrays a female character as sexually harassed by her father-in-law.

In the present study, the selected novel Aangan reflects a feminist perspective (Rizvi 2010), highlighting the story of a patriarchal society, in which societal norms have constricted women’s lives. Although the families protect the females from the evils that exist outside the homes, they are usually not safe from the male members of their own families. In the novel, the character Aliya is sexually harassed by her cousin Jamil, who lives in the same home. Reviewing the novel, Bafna (2019) covered how the ghost of sexual harassment preoccupied the female protagonist through a number of pages of the novel, in which Aliya remained nervous due to the unwanted advances of her cousin, even in the supposed protection of the courtyard. There is a need to investigate how this representation of the harassed woman is produced by the two translators. Aangan’s title is translated by Hussain (2001) as The Inner Courtyard (TT₁), and by Rockwell (2018) as The Women’s Courtyard (TT₂). The research questions of this study are as follows:

• 1. How are the translation strategies deployed in the translated texts?

• 2. How is the representation of the harassed woman produced in the English translations of the novel?

• 3. How are the perspectival positions of the female translators reflected in the translated texts?

Research framework

To answer these questions, a multidisciplinary framework was established from discourse theory and feminist translation theory. As the present study intends to analyse the discursive construction of (translated) feminist discourse, the critical perspective from discourse theory is needed to help analyse the discursive processes, hidden ideologies and power relations in the construction and representation of sexual harassment.

A constructionist paradigm of discourse theory is adopted, which views discourse in terms of social practice (Fairclough 2013). Additionally, it indicates that discourse has the power to construct social realities (Burr 1995) and plays an important part in the processes of identity construction. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model (2013) is used for investigating power relations and uncovering implied ideologies present in the texts. This model is employed as it is committed to answering the types of research questions asked in this study, and helps to analyse the hidden ideology and power relations involved in the construction of a (feminist) identity.

Fairclough’s three-dimensional model is comprised of three levels (description, interpretation and explanation). In this study, we are interested in the use of the description level within the model, which allows us to investigate how the text producers’ worldviews are reflected in their selected linguistic features The description level analyses the value-laden linguistic features. The values are experiential, relational, and expressive values. Experiential values depict the translator’s experience of the world. Relational values address how social relationships are enacted through translation. Expressive values highlight how the translators have evaluated the source text realities. This level involves ten key questions about vocabulary, grammar and textual structure as posited by Fairclough (2013), and illustrated in Fig. 1. In the second level of interpretation, we examine how the translators, by drawing upon the feminist perspective, have interpreted the ST realities and how their linguistic choices reflect their respective subjective positions. The third level looks at the relationship between discourse and context, and the researcher has taken into account the patriarchal society of the subcontinent when analysing the production and interpretation of lexico-grammatical choices made by both translators.

Fig. 1

Ideologically Potential Linguistic Features by Fairclough (2013).

Fairclough’s model is flexible, which allows it to be applied to the research questions in this study. As this study intends to analyse the image of the harassed woman in the translated texts, a feminist translation theory is useful to analyse the female representations in these translations. Thus, Simon’s translation theory, fit at the explanation level, is added in CDA to analyse the images in the translated texts.

Feminist translation theory was developed in Canada by feminists as a method for translating the critical account of patriarchal conventional language (Brevet, 2019). It aims to womanhandle the text (Godard 1984), and follows an interventionist methodology in the translation (Flotow 1991), where various feminist translation strategies are practised. We will look at some of these strategies below, but, for reasons of space, we will only define the ones relevant to this study. Flotow (1991) suggested translation strategies such as supplementing, prefacing, footnoting and hijacking. In supplementing, “the ST is supplemented by its translation, matured, developed and given an afterline” (Flotow 1991). In prefacing and footnoting strategy, feminist translators use prefaces and footnotes reflecting their presence in translated texts. In hijacking, translators intervene in translation by hijacking the ST (Flotow 1991) which means translators actively interfere by diverting or appropriating the source text for their own purposes. Wallmach (2006), on the other hand, employs the strategies of substitution, repetition, deletion, addition, and permutation in investigating the creativity and nature of feminist translation. In substitution, the relevant ST item is replaced by the relevant TT item. In repetition, the ST item is repeated or transferred directly into the translation. In deletion, the ST item is not rendered in the TT. In the strategy of addition, some new items are added to the TT due to intentional interventions by the translator. Permutation is a kind of compensation, where the ST item is rendered in the TT, but its position within the TT does not indicate the relative position of its ST counterpart. Parentheses, prefaces, footnotes, and italics may be employed, for example. As for Massardier-Kenney’s (1997) strategies, her strategies are author- centred or translator-centred. Author- centred strategies aim to make the reader comprehend the ST. These include recovery, commentary and resistance. Recovery includes finding, publication, and translation of text by women writers who were previously excluded from the canon. Commentary includes using the meta-discourse along with the translation, making obvious the significance of the feminine voice or of a woman in translation. In resistance, a translator challenges the norms of patriarchal linguistic conventions. Translator- centred strategies bring the translation closer to the target readers. These include commentary, parallel texts, and collaboration. In commentary, translators describe the motives that affected their translation. In parallel texts, texts in the target language that were produced in a situation similar to that of the source text are placed side by side with the source. Collaboration highlights that the translator has worked in cooperation with other translators or the author of a source text.

Moreover, some other translation strategies are employed by the translators of the selected data of this study. It is important to explain them here. Numerous classifications of translation strategies are provided by several translation theorists (Vinay and Darbelnet 1958; Newmark 1988; Baker 1992; Chesterman 1997). These include literal translation, omission, and explicitness. In literal translation, the linguistic constructions in the source language are converted to their nearest target language equivalents, but the lexical words are translated singly, out of context (Newmark 1988, p.45). In omission, a translator omits a particular expression or item in the translation to avoid a lengthy explanation (Baker 1992). In explicitness, some information about the source text may be added or deleted making the text more or less explicit (Chesterman 1997). These strategies were incorporated into the framework used to analyse the parallel corpus in this study.

The Canadian school of feminist translation is generally linked to the first wave of feminist translation (Le Bervet 2019). From the 1990s onwards, issues based on transnational feminist translation have been discussed, which have focused on the ideas of intersectionality and diversity. The focus is on translating the writings where gender is not explicit and where it tangles with other social problems. Now, the work of feminist translation studies is established on the redefinition of feminist translation by re- examining the translations of historical texts, e.g. Wolf (2015) analysed the works of two 18^th century feminist translators, Huber and Gottshed. In addition, some scholars have questioned the Western feminist viewpoint in the domain of feminist translation studies. They raised significant questions, such as what occurs when a Western female translator undertakes the translation of texts authored by an African feminist writer whose understanding of feminism differs from the translator’s own. This perspective asserted the existence of various forms of feminism globally (Bertacco 2003). In this context, the significance of Spivak’s name shines through, as she made substantial contributions to feminist theory, translation studies, and postcolonial discourse. Her essay titled “The Politics of Translation” (2000) stands as a pivotal work in the realm of feminist translation studies. A prominent aspect of her work is her criticism of Western feminists who advocate for the translation of feminist writings from non-European regions into English. She argues that this approach erases the identities and perspectives of politically less powerful cultures and individuals.

This study follows Simon’s theory of feminist translation (Simon 1996), which focuses on the subjectivity of the translator, aims to include feminist ideology in the translated texts, and highlights that translation is not an unbiased activity. Simon’s theory stated that translation plays an important role in subverting or legitimizing the status quo. It critiques the idea that downplays the importance of both translation and women in both literature and society. It questions the idea of faithfulness in translation, and maintains that the translator can interfere in the original text to obscure, highlight, or construct the women’s identities in translated texts, where faithfulness towards the writing projects, rather than towards the source or target text, is seen as relevant (Simon 1996).

Literature review

Numerous studies have investigated the sexual harassment of women in Pakistani novels. Mitra (2008) studied the sexual persecution of the female characters in Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man, and described in detail how sexual harassment was used as a strategy to manipulate women within the novel. Likewise, Chaudhary (2013) investigated how female sexuality remained a vital point in the gendered atmosphere of Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man, and underlined how the patriarchal structures regulate the lives of women in the novel. Additionally, Ehsan et al. (2015) examined the sexual harassment of women in Durrani’s My Feudal Lord. By applying Kristeva’s feminist perspectives to an analysis of the threat to female identity, Ehsan et al. highlighted how women were shown to live under a controlled patriarchal society, and thus faced dissatisfaction, and discouragement.

There are very few studies focusing on how the issue of harassment of women was translated. Some relevant examples include Zaylah et al. (2021), who examined the representation of Zahra, the central female character, in the English translation of Al-Shaykh’s Ḥikāyat Zahrah. It was found that “Zahra’s sexual experiences and sexual harassment incidents are often disregarded or altered, which removes al-Shaykh’s focus on Arab women’s sexuality and her call for women’s bodily autonomy and safety” (11). Likewise, Baya (2019) analysed the English translation of the writings of the Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadaouis. The linguistic forms and semantic connotations used in his novel depict the position of Arab Egyptian women who suffer from inequality, subjugation, sexual harassment, and feelings of loss under men’s control and cruelty. The translator, Sherif Hatata, put the problems of Egyptian women’s subjugation and harassment in words. Similarly, Li (2020) evaluated the issue of women’s rape in the Chinese translations of The Color Purple from the viewpoint of feminist translation. It was found that the male translator had not articulated the female character’s rape by using unclear and unsuitable wording to feelings, while the female translator, because of having an awareness of the bodily experiences of women, had given voice to the same issue. There are even fewer studies studying the representation of sexually harassed women in the Pakistani novel. This study has analysed this identity in the English translations of Aangan in light of the abovementioned research framework.

Methodology

Following a qualitative approach, a constructivist paradigm was selected for the present study as the authors were interested in how translators construct their own understanding of the phenomenon of sexual harassment. The corpus comprised of the Urdu novel Aangan (Mastoor 1962) and its two translations. The two selected translations include Hussain’s, titled The Inner Courtyard (2001), and Rockwell’s, titled The Women’s Courtyard (2018).

This study employed corpus linguistics methods for extracting data. As CDA is criticized for its subjectivity, the corpus tools of NLTK are employed making the work more systematic and organized at the data collection stage. Additionally, the need of using corpus tools in research using feminist translation theory was also highlighted in a systematic review of the application of feminist translation theory in translated novels (Irshad and Yasmin 2022). Thus, the parallel corpus of the selected novels was compiled. The frequencies of the occurrence of the male and female characters, Jameel and Aliya, are taken from the parallel corpus. Moreover, the concordances based on their interactions are extracted from the ST using NLTK (as shown in Fig. 2). The NLTK toolkit is used because it helps to handle the Urdu data (Jawaid et al. 2014). The results are saved in MS Excel for ease of visibility.

Fig. 2

Process of extracting frequencies and concordances from the corpus using NLTK.

After the data in the present study (the corpus of three novels, the ST, TT₁ and TT₂) were put in the NLTK, the data were cleaned and processed (i.e., removing unnecessary spaces, digits, special symbols, etc.). Before preparing the data for analysis, data normalization techniques, tokenization, stemming and lemmatization, are automatically processed in NLTK. Furthermore, the frequencies of two proper names, including the male (the harasser) and female (the harassed) with their concordances from the ST are taken from the corpus.

The extracted concordances from the ST are manually tagged according to Fairclough’s (2013) model in the ST, and their equivalent linguistic choices are underlined in both TT₁ and TT₂ (see Tables 1, 2 and 3 in the appendix). The concordances with linguistic features (indicating gender ideologies) were assembled according to theme of the sexual harassment of women. (These linguistic features are based on Fairclough’s ten questions discussed in the research framework above, e.g. if there is overwording, rewording, or particular classification schemes, it may be an indication that the text producer has constructed a particular ideology in the text). After assembling the concordances with linguistic features highlighting gender ideology, the emerging themes are (1) the discursive production of the male (Jameel) as (a) physical assaulter, and (b) as stalker and (2) the discursive production of the representation of the harassed woman (Aliya) in terms of her reaction. The randomly chosen concordances are selected for detailed analysis using the research framework above. Moreover, the paratexts of the selected translated texts are also critically investigated.

Data analysis

The statistical data to analyse the discursive process of naming are derived from the corpus using NLTK. By investigating the discursive processes of naming, the ideological processes behind them can be exposed (Bodenhorn and Bruck 2019). Fairclough views names as falling under the category of vocabulary, one of the ideological levels of discourse (Galasiński and Skowronek 2010). This discursive process, where in-groups are presented in detail and outgroups are provided with little description, seems ideological (Wodak 2001). The names of the two characters, Aliya (the victim) and Jameel (the harasser) are used to extract their frequencies from the source and target texts. These statistics helps to analyse how the representation of the harassed woman, Aliya, is given voice in the translations and how the harasser male, Jameel, is devoiced in the translated texts. The extracted frequencies of the names of Jameel and Aliya from ST, TT₁, and TT₂ in the discourse are given below.

Table 1 shows that Hussain applied the translation strategy of deletion by reducing the frequencies of Jameel’s and Aliya’s names in the translation. However, the results show a strikingly higher deletion of the male agent (harasser) from the text. It seems that the Pakistani translator intended to hide the identity of the harasser to reduce the seriousness of the issue. Conversely, Rockwell, in TT₂, has overtranslated the name of the female character by using the translation strategy of addition, so the female voice is more dominant owing to the high frequency of the woman’s name.

Table 1 Frequencies of the names of male (the harasser) and female (the victim) from ST, TT₁, and TT₂.

These statistics can be read to suggest that the woman’s image is more substantiated in TT_2. This discursive process, where in-groups are presented in detail and outgroups are provided with little description, seems ideological (Wodak, 2001) and gives the clue that the translated texts are constructed on the design of feminist translation. Moreover, both the male and female names seem to be underused in TT₁.

Furthermore, the critical analysis of the concordances based on the interaction between Jameel and Aliya indicates that analysis can proceed in two ways: (1) the discursive production of the male (Jameel) as (a) physical assaulter, and (b) stalker, and (2) the discursive production of the image of the harassed woman (Aliya) in terms of her reaction. The two perspectives will be examined one by one.

The male’s representation as a physical assaulter

In sexual assault, a person touches another person sexually and intentionally without his or her consent or can force him or her into a sexual activity. Women are most often victims rather than aggressors. In the novel, Jameel’s identity has been constructed as a sexual harasser who makes several attempts to sexually assault and harass Aliya, and Aliya’s representation has been constructed as the harassed woman. This story of victimized women is prevalent in Pakistani culture. This gender ideology, indicating unchallenged male power is questioned by Mastoor in her work. The discursive choices جذب کر رہے تھے ‘absorbing’ جکڑ لیا, ‘hold’, چوم رہے تھے ‘kissing’, جھپٹ کر ‘suddenly attack’ (see Table 1 in the appendix) are ideologically used in the ST to construct Jameel’s actions as a sexual assaulter. The discursive strategy of rewording is ideologically employed (Fairclough 2013) highlighting Jameel’s representation as a physical assaulter. The concordances in Table 1 of the appendix have underlined ideological linguistic choices highlighting physical assault of the woman.

Rockwell’s discourse on Jameel’s identity as a sexual assaulter employed intensified language to describe his actions, such as “grabbing”, “pressed”, and “grabbed”. Thus, the translator’s classification schme shows intensified discursive choices. In contrast, Hussain employed a classification scheme that shows three ways of handling the issue: first, Hussain has not translated the two pages (page numbers 174 and 175) depicting the physical assault of Aliya by Jameel. The translator seems to have kept the woman’s chastity intact in the translation. The concordances (3,5,6) from Table 1 were taken from the situation when Jameel made first attempt at a physical assault on Aliya. This indicates that Hussain has deemphazied Jameel’s physical assault. Second, the translator tried to give a romantic tendency to the situation: the translation of جھپٹ کر اس کے ہاتھ پکڑ لئے تھے is rendered as “caught both her hands and held them in his clasp” and چوم رہے تھے as “frenzied kisses rained on her”. Third, the translator has literally translated certain expressions: ہاتھ پکڑ لئے تھے is rendered as “caught both her hands”. The following example is analysed in detail in Table 1 (see appendix).

Example 1

ST:

جمیل بھیا نے آگے بڑھ کر اسے اپنے بازوؤں میں جکڑ لیا- وہ اسے پاگلوں کی طرح چوم رہے تھے اور اسے اپنے سینے میں جذب کر رہے تھے -وہ ذرا سی مذاحمت بھی نہ کر سکتی تھی۔

Back Translation:

چوم رہے تھے	پاگلوں کی طرح	اسے	وہ	جکڑ لیا	بازوؤں میں	اپنے	اسے	آگے بڑھ کر	جمیل بھیا نے
Kissing	Madness	her	he	hold	hands	His	her	Moving forwards	Jameel Bhiya
	نہ کر سکتی تھی	مذاحمت بھی	ذرا سی	وہ	جذب کر رہے تھے	سینے میں	اپنے	اسے	اور
	Could not do	resistance	at all	she	absorbing	Chest	his	her	and

TT₁: He stepped forward and caught her in his arms. Frenzied kisses rained on her. He had clasped her to him as if he would absorb her into his very being and she was unable to resist him.

TT₂: He moved forward and grabbed her in his arms and began kissing her like a madman. He pressed her against his chest and she wasn’t able to resist him at all.

The context of the example from the ST indicates that Jameel approaches Aliya at night to persuade her to accept his love. When she turns him down, he holds both of her hands at once. Mastoor depicted the scene in the light of the prevailing gender ideology in the subcontinent, representing the woman’s victimization in the Subcontinent as the female is too weak to protect herself against a male’s attack. There is social pressure on her to keep quiet and not reveal the issue of sexual harassment or assault. Thus, the selected example highlights Jameel’s attempt of sexually assaulting Aliya. By stepping closer to Aliya, Jameel starts kissing her in his madness. The lexical choices جذب کر رہے تھے ‘absorbing’, چوم رہے تھے ‘kissing’, جکڑ لیا ‘hold’, مذاحمت بھی نہ کر سکتی تھی ذرا سی ‘could not resist at all’ are ideologically used to show the woman’s victimisation, when she is a submissive victim and anybody can touch and hold her without her consent.

The expression چوم رہے تھے is translated as “kisses rained on her” in TT₁ and “kissing” in TT₂. The verb چوم رہے تھے is translated as ‘kissing’(verb) in TT₂. Conversely, it is translated as the noun “kisses” with an addition of “rained on her” in TT₁ presenting the assault as an expression of Jameel’s romantic feelings for Aliya.

The phrase سینے میں جذب کر رہے تھے also indicates how the female is perceived as a commodity by the male. This shows how Jameel develops emotional and physical connections with Aliya. It is translated as “he pressed her against his chest” in TT₂, and “he has clasped her to him as he would absorb her into his very being” in TT₁.The lexical choice سینے is translated literally as “chest” in TT_2. Furthermore, to describe Jameel’s action as developing an emotional association with Aliya, the writer used the linguistic choice of جذب کر رہے تھے which appears to be an ambiguous idea, signifying that the ST author has written something indirectly. Additionally, Rockwell, in TT₂, hijacked the expression جذب کر رہے تھے by translating it as “pressed”. The expression “pressed” reveals that the idea of force is present in the translator’s mind, emphasizing the intensity of Jameel’s act of sexual assault on Aliya. On the other hand,اسے اپنے سینے میں جذب کر رہے تھے is translated as “he had clasped her to him as if he would absorb her into his very being” in TT₁, where the writer has literally translated the expression جذب کر رہے تھے as “absorb” and added “he had clasped her to him” by using the technique of explicitness. In addition, she neutralizes the expression سینے میں as “very being” suggesting that the translator has maintained the woman’s chastity. The discursive choices “absorb”, and “clasped” indicate a slightly romantic perspective.

The above discussion highlights that the representation of the sexually harassed woman as depicted in the ST’s discursive choices, underscores the woman’s plight. This image has been intensified in TT₂ as the lexical choices “grabbed”, and “pressed” reflect, which indicate how the translator’s subjectivity and intervention to make women’s experience visible in the translated texts (Simon 1996). The discursive choices in TT₂ intend to create a sympathetic reaction in the reader by emphasizing the details of the account that indicate harassment. However, the choices of TT₁ seem less intensified than those of TT_2. The translator has shown tolerance of the issue of harassment and conveyed a somewhat romantic tone in the translated text as her selected linguistic choices -“into his very being”, “held them in his clasp”, and “frenzied kisses rained on her”- highlight.

The male’s representation as a stalker

Stalking is an act of chasing someone quietly, and a form of harassment against a woman where a man follows a scared woman (Mullen and Pathé, 2000). A stalker can be defined “as a person who follows and watches someone, especially a woman, over a period of time” (Cambridge Dictionary Online). This is a crime. In the novel, Jameel stalks Aliya regularly when she lives in his house. He stares at her, which puts Aliya in such distress, and that she always attempts to find some shelter against his gaze. The discursive process of rewording is employed to produce Jameel’s image as stalker: these include آنکھوں میں آنکھیں ڈال دیں‘looking straight into her’, دیکھا کنکھیوں سے ‘looking from the corner of his eyes’, دیکھ رہے تھے ‘looking’, and so on (see Table 2 in the appendix). The table underlines linguistic choices (highlighting Jameel’s identity as stalker) from the ST along with translations in both TT₁ and TT₂.

Rockwell used the translation strategies of substitution and hijacking, and Hussain used the translation strategies of literal translation, addition and omission. Both translators show their own subjectivity through their translation strategies: Rockwell has translated بڑی گہری نظروں سے گھورنے لگے as “began to stare at her deeply”; آنکھوں میں آنکھیں ڈال دیں as “looked into her eyes” etc. and Hussain has translated آنکھوں میں آنکھیں ڈال دیں as “looked into her eyes” etc. Rockwell has also magnified the image of Jameel as stalker by translating بڑے اشتیاق سے دیکھ رہے ہیں as “staring at her amorously”, بڑے اشتیاق سے دیکھا as “amorously”, دیکھنے لگتے as “glance over”, دیکھنے لگے as “to peer at”. The classification scheme employed by Rockwell, by using the intensified discursive choices, constructs Jameel’s identity as a stalker, and “amorous” is used here to show the sexual/animalistic connotations of his conduct. In contrast, Hussain’s discursive choices reflect an element of romanticism tone in the construction of Jameel’s identity: “lover-like appreciation”, and “eyes had subjected her to strange messages”, etc. These linguistic choices have softened Jameel’s identity as a stalker and portrayed him as a lover. The following example is analysed in detail in Table 2 (see appendix).

Example 2

ST:

عالیہ نے ایک پھول توڑ کر اپنے بالوں میں لگایا مگر جب اس نے دیکھا کہ جمیل بھیا دالان کی محراب کے پاس کھڑے اسے بڑے اشتیاق سے دیکھ رہے ہیں تو اس نے بوکھلا کر پھول کیاری میں اچھال دیا۔

Back Translation:

اس نے	جب	مگر	لگایا	میں	بالوں	اپنے	پھول توڑ کر	ایک	عالیہ نے
she	when	but	put	in	hair	Her	plucked	one	Aliya
اسے	کھڑے	پاس	کے	محراب	کی	دالان	جمیل بھیا	کہ	دیکھا
her	standing	near	of	archway	of	Veranda	Jameel Bhiya	That	saw
	اچھال دیا	کیاری میں	پھول	بوکھلا کر	اس نے	تو	دیکھ رہے ہیں	اشتیاق سے	بڑے
	tossed	Flower-bed	flower	startled	he	Then	looking	lovingly	Very

TT_1: Aaliya plucked a flower and put it in her hair, then, catching sight of Jamil’s appreciative look, pulled it off, and flung it back unceremoniously in the flowerbed.

TT₂: Aliya plucked one flower and placed it in her hair, but when she saw Jameel standing under the archway of the veranda, staring at her amorously, she startled and tossed the flower back into the bed.

The stalker shadows the harassed individual for a prolonged period. Jameel stalks Aliya off and on throughout the novel: sometimes, he watches her from the corner of his eye; at times, he stares at her fixedly; and several times, he gazes at her lovingly. The aim of this persistent staring is to convince her to accept his love for her. In the above example, Jameel looked at her with بڑے اشتیاق سے when Aliya was plucking the flower from the flower bed. Upon perceiving that Jamil was watching her, she flung the flower in the flower bed. The phrase بڑے اشتیاق سے دیکھ رہے ہیں ‘looking lovingly’ is an ideologically produced linguistic choice, as it is used by the female writer to underscore the male gaze towards a female. Additionally, many related expressions (بڑی گہری نظروں‘looking deeply’, آنکھوں میں آنکھیں ڈال دیں ‘looking straight into eyes’, شوق سے دیکھ رہے تھے ‘looking with desire’, پیار سے دیکھتے ہوئے کہا ‘looking with love’) are used by using the strategy of rewording. This discursive strategy is employed (Fairclough 2013) in the ideological construction of the discourse of the male gaze, which distresses the female protagonist. The lexical choice اشتیاق means “longing, fondness, craving, and yearning” (Rekhta Dictionary Online). It is translated as “amorously” by Rockwell, and as “appreciative look” by Hussain. “Amorous” means “strongly motivated by love and especially sexual love” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary), and “appreciative” is a type of look loaded with connotations of admiration for the female form by the male gaze. Rockwell has taken the sense of sexual desire and visual sexual gratification, while, Hussain’s choice indicates eagerness, and admiration. Thus, it seems that Rockwell has used intensified discursive choice to construct Jameel’s identity as a stalker, and Hussain has romanticized this same figure as a lover.

The above discussion also shows that translating is not an impartial activity (Lefevere 2016). It reveals the translator’s subjectivity and gender consciousness in places where he or she intervenes in the text, making the woman’s experience and plight visible (Simon 1996). Rockwell supplemented the sense of stalker in the process of reconstructing Jameel’s image in the translated text.

The representation of the harassed woman (Aliya) in terms of her reaction

Aliya’s psychological reaction to Jameel’s acts of harassment is discursively produced as بوکھلا گئی ‘startled’, ڈر گئی ‘frightened’, پریشان ‘worried’, گھبرا کر ‘worried’. The discursive choices underscore Aliya’s representation as a harassed woman. The image is ideologically constructed by using the discursive strategy of rewording. Rewording is an over lexicalization (Fairclough 2013), and “a form of elaboration, when a proposition or concept is restated using a different form of words” (Baker and Ellece 2011, p.121). The expressions ڈر گئی, پریشان, گھبرا کر, بوکھلا گئی are used repeatedly for the woman when the male character attempts to harass her psychologically or physically. Hussain ideologically reproduced the gender ideology in the novel, highlighting the victimization of women in the region where the novel is written (see Table 3 in the appendix). The table shows the concordances underlining linguistic choices (highlighting the reaction of Aliya to being sexually harassed) from the ST along with their translations in TT₁ and TT_2.

The discursive construction of the image of the harassed woman, in terms of Aliya’s reaction to harassment, by Rockwell indicates that she has maintained or magnified this image. She has maintained the gender ideology of the ST in the TT, for example, بے بسی is translated as “helplessly” by using the strategy of substitution. Moreover, she has employed intensified evaluative lexical choices by rendering گھبرا کر as “nervous”, “panicked”, or “startled”. These choices represent the exaggerated fear Aliya feels when she looks at the sexual harasser, Jameel.

Nevertheless, Hussain has treated the issue in three ways: first, she has not translated the discursive choices پریشان, سکون درہم برہم ہو رہا تھا; second, she has romanticized the matter of harassment. For example, بے بسی is translated as “mesmerised”, which seems to indicate that she has tried to apply a romantic tone to the translation. Third, she has mitigated the intensity of some expressions; گھبرا کر is translated as “uncomfortable”, “unease”, and “unable to look at him”. Hussain’s classification scheme (“unable to look at him”, “uncomfortable”, “unease”) reflects a tolerant attitude on her part. The following example has been analysed in detail in Table 3 (see appendix).

Example 3

ST:

اس نے بڑی بے بسی سے جمیل بھیا کے ٹھنڈے ہاتھ کی طرف دیکھا اور اسے ایک دم وہ مینڈک یاد آ گیا جو برسات کے دنوں میں اس کے ہاتھ پر کود گیا تھا۔

Back Translation:

دیکھا	طرف	کی	ہاتھ	ٹھنڈے	کے	جمیل بھیا	بے بسی سے	بڑی	اس نے
saw	towards	of	hand	cold	Of	Jameel Bhiya	helplessly	Very	She
دنوں میں	کے	برسات	جو	یاد آ گیا	مینڈک	وہ	ایک دم	اسے	اور
days	of	rainy	which	remembered	Frog	she	at once	She	and
						کود گیا تھا	ہاتھ پر	کے	اس
						jumped	hand	Of	her

TT₁: Mesmerised, she gazed at his damp hand. The sensation was akin to what she had felt when once a monsoon frog had jumped on to her hand.

TT₂: She stared helplessly at his clammy hand, which immediately brought to mind a frog that had once leapt on to her hand during monsoon.

In the above example, Mastoor portrays Aliya’s vulnerability and powerlessness when Jameel comes close to her on the rooftop, persuading her of his love. Jameel held Aliya’s hand. Aliya felt helpless, as she could not resist, and sensed that his hand was cold like the frog that had jumped on her hand once in the rainy days. Mastoor has linked Jameel’s cold hand with the coldness of a frog. The underlined linguistic choice بے بسی سے ‘helplessly’ is ideologically produced as this expression is used for the female when the male puts his hand on her hand without her consent, and despite her refusals when she is alone. Thus, this choice highlights the construction of a woman’s helplessness in a patriarchal society when a man sexually harasses her. British law maintains that it is a crime to put one’s hand on another without permission (Sweeney et al., n.d.). The expression بے بسی means “helplessness” (Rekhta Dictionary Online). It is translated as “helplessly” by Rockwell, and as ‘mesmerized” by Hussain. “Helplessly” is a situation in which “one is unable to do anything to oneself or anyone else” (Cambridge Dictionary Online), and “mesmerized” means “to have someone’s attention completely so that they cannot think of anything else” (Cambridge Dictionary Online). ٹھنڈے ہاتھ is translated as “clammy hands” by Rockwell. It seems that the translator has taken the connotation of “clammy” from the cold wetness of a frog, which resembles his unpleasantly sweaty hands as perceived by Aliya in reaction to his touch, and it shows a more negative depiction of Jameel’s hands as an unpleasant creature. However, Hussain has employed the discursive choices of “damp hands”, which also seem to align with the meaning of “mesmerized”, showing a somewhat romantic tone.

The above discussion highlights that Rockwell held onto the notion of woman’s helplessness in the TT. Furthermore, she magnified the negativity of Jameel’s advances by using the discursive choice of “clammy”, reflecting a negative expressive value: distaste.

Furthermore, it is important to analyse the paratext used by Rockwell along with the main translated text as the ideological position of the translator can be analysed in it. Moreover, the use of commentary in the paratext is one of the feminist translation strategies. Rockwell employed this translation strategy to highlight the issue of harassment against women.

The translator used an afterword in this case study to emphasize the issue of harassment. The translator maintains that the women are not safe within the boundaries of the courtyard, where “romances, tragedies, love triangles, sexual harassment and even assault occur almost always between cousins. … stalker cousins have easy access to their prey and sexual assault can be carried out relatively easily even without (others) noticing” (P. 287). The classification scheme in the selected discursive choices (“sexual harassment”, “prey”, “stalker”, “assault”) is employed, highlighting women’s victimization in the subcontinent. Furthermore, Jameel’s identity, the male harasser, is highlighted by using negative expressive values. The translator maintains that Jameel is “a stalker, a sexual harasser and a gas lighter. He assaults Aliya, does not respect her wishes and manipulates her” (p. 295). By employing rewording “stalker”, “a sexual harasser”, “a gas lighter”, “assaults”, and “manipulates”, it appears that the translator construes Jameel’s relations with Aliya as sexual assault. By guiding readers in how they should read the texts, the paratext highlights the translator’s voice, gives a place where the translators’ positions can be shown, and depicts the translator’s gender consciousness (Meng 2020).

The above analysis highlights that translation is not a passive action; it involves reconceptualizing existing knowledge and the development of new identities (Bassnet and Lefevere 1990). The translator makes women’s voice visible in the text (Simon 1996) by highlighting female experiences and negativity around men’s actions. By contrast, Hussain softened the issue of women’s helplessness by romanticizing the issue.

Discussion

The first question is related to the translation strategies used in the translated texts, and the results show that Hussain’s employed translation strategies do not seem to be feminist. She has used literal translation, omission, and explicitness. By contrast, Rockwell employed the feminist translation strategies of supplementing, hijacking, commentary, substitution, deletion, and addition. She has used feminist translation strategies to strengthen the image of the harassed woman in the translation.

Rockwell also employed feminist translation strategies to make women’s voices and experiences more explicit. These strategies underscore the woman translator’s presence, making the language speak for women, by making them heard and seen in the world. The translator has supplemented “incredibly” in the translation of اس کا جی دب رہا تھا as “she felt incredibly oppressed” (Ex. 10) magnifying Aliya’s oppression when Jameel looks at her. Additionally, the translator hijacked the text in translating اپنے سینے میں جذب کر رہے تھے as “pressed her against his chest”. Its literal translation is “absorbing her into his chest”, whereas the translator has hijacked the ST expression جذب کر رہے تھے by highlighting Jameel’s use of force in a sexual assault on Aliya with the word “pressed”. Moreover, the translator also hijacked the ST expressions that highlight the idea of male stalking of females: دیکھ رہے ہیں as “staring” (Ex. 7), دیکھ رہے تھے as “watching” (Ex. 8), دیکھا as “glancing” (Ex. 12), دیکھ رہے تھے as “watching” (Ex. 13), دیکھا as “stared” (Ex. 14), دیکھنے لگتے as “glance over” (Ex. 15), دیکھتے ہوئے as “gazing” (Ex. 19), دیکھنے لگے as “peer at” (Ex. 20). The ST expressions highlight Jameel’s way of looking at Aliya, whereas TT₂ indicates that Jameel’s actions are stalking. Additionally, the translator strategically employed the translation strategy of deletion in rendering Jameel’s name in TT₂. The translator has reduced male space by under translating male name in TT_2. Rockwell also used commentary in the form of an afterword to highlight the issue of harassment of women. By guiding readers in how they should read the texts, the paratext highlights the translator’s voice, gives a place where the translators’ positions can be shown, and depicts the translator’s gender consciousness (Meng 2020).

The second question addresses how the harassed woman’s representation is discursively produced in the translated texts. Rockwell addressed harassment with a sensitive tone, whereas Hussain showed tolerance and somewhat romanticized this issue. Rockwell’s classification scheme seems intensified, constructing the female’s representation as a harassed woman and the male’s image as a harasser. By contrast, although Hussain has aligned the ideological positioning of her translation with the gender ideology constructed in the ST, she also de-emphasized the harassed woman’s representation in the translated text by using mitigated discursive choices.

Overall, Hussain’s classification scheme indicates that she has de-emphasized the harassed woman’s representation in the translated text (TT₁) and romanticized the situation of harassment. For instance, بے بسی سے is translated as “mesmerised” (Ex. 22, see appendix), پاگلوں کی طرح چوم رہے تھے as “frenzied kisses rained on her” (Ex. 1), جھپٹ کر as “held them in his clasp” (Ex. 2), and بڑے اشتیاق سے دیکھا تھا as “lover-like appreciation” (Ex. 21). Moreover, the translator has shown Aliya’s tolerant attitude towards harassment: for instance, گھبرانے لگی تھی is translated as “uncomfortable” (Ex. 25), گھبرا کر as “disturbed” (Ex. 24), “unable to look at him” (Ex. 27), and “unease” (Ex. 23). Furthermore, the translator has maintained the woman’s chastity in rendering the woman’s image in translation; for instance, سینے میں جذب کر رہے تھے is translated as “absorb her into his very being” (Ex. 1). Moreover, the translator has not translated two pages (174, 175) that depicted Jameel’s physical and sexual assault on Aliya. Thus, although the translator aligned the translation with the gender ideology presented in the ST, she has showed a tolerant attitude towards the act of harassment.

Overall, Rockwell’s classification scheme seems intensified: گھبرا کر is translated as “panicked” (Ex. 27 and 28), پکڑ لئے تھے as “grabbing” (Ex. 1). The translator constructed a more intensified representation of Jameel as a harasser in TT₂. When making a sexual assault on Aliya, he is presented as someone who uses force to harass Aliya; for instance, پکڑ لئے تھے۔ is translated as “grabbing” (Ex. 2), اپنے سینے میں جذب کر رہے تھے as “pressed her against his chest” (Ex. 1). Moreover, his negative representation is magnified by supplementing the expression “cried” in example 3 (see appendix), and in the translation of پاگلوں کی طرح as “like a madman” (Ex. 1). In addition, Aliya’s reaction to harassment is intensified: گھبرا کر is translated as “panicked” (Ex. 27 and 28), and اس کا جی دب رہا تھا as “she felt incredibly oppressed” (Ex. 10). Additionally, Jameel’s representation is also constructed as a stalker: for instance, دیکھتے ہوئے is translated as “gazing” (Ex. 19), دیکھنے لگے as “to peer at” (Ex. 20), and بڑے اشتیاق سے دیکھ رہے ہیں, “staring at her amorously” (Ex. 7). The examples highlight that discourse is a social practice (Fairclough 2013) that plays an important role in producing identities. The examples indicate the translator’s subjectivity and application of an interventionist approach under the influence of feminist perspective. It highlights that translation is not a neutral activity and the feminist translator womanhandled the text, making women’s voices and experiences visible (Simon 1996). Additionally, this text (as feminist translated discourse) also highlights the ideological application of various discursive strategies – overwording, rewording and classification schemes (Fairclough 2013). The discursive choices used in the text have the ideological potential to discursively construct the events in the novel. The discussion highlights that Rockwell’s translation has given a vivid depiction of the harassment of women. Rockwell’s attempt of giving voice to women in the translated text seems to align with the results found by Baya (2019) and Li (2020), where the selected translators had given voices to women who highlight their harassment.

The third research question addresses the translators’ perspectival positions reflected in the translated texts. The results show that both translated texts reflect the different positions of the translators due to various factors. These may include personal, social, cultural, and temporal factors, which are responsible for different interpretations of the same discourse on the issue of the sexual harassment of women. All these factors are responsible for constructing perspectival positions of the translators.

First, personal attitude towards the specific issue influences the process of translation. Rockwell seems more sensitive to the issue of sexual assault of women than Hussain. This could be the reason for choosing more sensitive words and showing less tolerance for the issue of the sexual harassment of women.

Second, each translator belongs to a different society: Rockwell is from the USA and Hussain from Pakistan. The movement to highlight the rights of women to be protected against harassment was initiated in the western countries. Sexual harassment (SH) has received much attention in the Global North, where the issue of the harassment of women has been highlighted and debated over a decade. For example, the #Me-Too movement started in the USA in 2006 when Tarana Burke, an American social activist, began to use the phrase “me too” on Myspace to highlight the occurrence of sexual harassment, particularly as it targeted women of colour (Jordan 2019). However, this movement took approximately 12 years to reach some countries of Global South including Pakistan where the #Me-Too movement was initiated in 2018. As the resident of the Global North, Rockwell appears to be more sensitive in highlighting issues regarding sexual harassment. This can also be one of the factors affecting Hussain’s tolerance of this issue in translation.

Third, the time when each translation was produced may also cause differences in handling the harassment issue in translation, as there is a time lapse of almost 17 years between translations. Rockwell translated the novel in 2018. This was a time when feminist ideas were systematically established and embedded globally, which may be why Rockwell was prepared to handle the issue sensitively. In contrast, Hussain translated the novel in 2001, a time when feminist concepts were not as deeply rooted in some cultures. Thus, the historical timing of the translation can possibly be the source of the tolerance depicted by Hussain. Additionally, there is a global effort supported by the UN to stop the harassment of women and related issues. Women’s rights to live free from violence and harassment are supported by international agreements, for example, the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” and “the 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women” (UN women, n.d). Additionally, media and education have played a great role in creating awareness and sensitizing people about human rights and particularity harassment over the past two decades. It can be assumed that if any Pakistani person were to translate the same novel in recent years, there is a possibility that he or she would be more careful of the discursive choices highlighting the harassment of women.

Fourth, culture can be another factor for selecting different discursive choices when representing the same issue. Harassment is sometimes given a romantic tone in Eastern culture, as Chaudhuri (2017) highlights the point that movies normalize stalking as romance. Anhatmakkar (2021) also posits that Bollywood romanticizes the sexual harassment of women in Indian society, where male behaviour is inherently shown as romantic. Moreover, people in many eastern cultures are more tolerant of sexual harassment due to lack of awareness, and because of cultural and social pressures on the victim. In one experimental study, Zimbroff (2007) found that Asian students are more tolerant of actions deemed to be considered harassment than non-Asian respondents. Rockwell’s emphasis on the issue of harassment is likely to be connected to her cultural position, as it seems that Western society views harassment issues with sensitivity and is less tolerant of harassment; for instance, even the act of laying one’s hand on someone else’s hand without her consent falls under the category of harassment (Sweeney et al., n.d.). Rockwell took the issue of harassment among cousins with a sensitive tone owing to her sociocultural norms in the West, whereas Hussain’s translation shows the harasser as romanticized character and is tolerant towards the prevailing issue of harassment among cousins. Rockwell’s translation seems to carry a stronger feminist sentiment than Hussain’s translation. She magnified the harassed representation of women and the harassing representation of the man.

Conclusion

This study investigated how translation strategies are used in two different English translations of Mastoor’s Urdu novel, Aangan, with scenes of sexual harassment in particular, and how the translators represent and construct the characters and situations. The study also examined the impact of the translators’ own perspectives on their lexical and grammatical choices. Rockwell employed feminist translation strategies of supplementing, hijacking, commentary, substitution, deletion, and addition whereas, Hussain used literal translation, omission, and explicitness. It seems Rockwell magnified the representation of the harassed woman by using classification scheme that intensified discursive choices. Conversely, Hussain de-emphasized this representation in the translation by employing mitigating discursive choices. On occasion, she would give the matter of harassment a romantic spin and would occasionally leave out words associated with Jameel’s physical assault on Aliya to maintain the impression of female chastity. There may be personal, social, cultural, and temporal factors responsible for specific perspectival positions of the translators which may lead to different interpretations of the same discourse, on the issue of the sexual harassment of women. Thus, the findings of the present study cannot be generalized over a whole culture. However, future researchers can investigate whether the word choices are the reflection of their culture by increasing the size of the corpus and combining more than one source text.