Voices of Resilience: Women’s Representation in Arabic and English Literature by Female Writers and Translators

This study explores the representation of women in Arabic and English literature by female writers and examines whether this representation carries into translated works. First, it analyzes the linguistic choices female writers make to portray women and their experiences across Eastern and Western contexts, using Fairclough’s three-dimensional analysis (2013). Second, it assesses the preservation of these representations in translation, employing Flotow’s strategies (2011). The study uses two original poems from different cultural backgrounds, Arabic and English, along with their translated versions, all of which are translated by women. The findings indicate that the Arabic female writer dedicates significant effort to portraying women as victims in unforgiving societies, while the English female writer portrays women as more determined despite facing discrimination and obstacles. These portrayals reflect the respective societies in which the writers live. Moreover, the study reveals that these representations are not lost in translation, as female translators make linguistic choices to convey the essence of the original, thereby ensuring the visibility of women in the translated texts.