Colonialism, nationalism and modernity in al-Manfalūṭī’s novelization of a Coppée’s play: a comparative reading of Fī sabīl al-tāj and Pour La Couronne

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the ways in which Muṣṭafā Luṭfī al-Manfalūṭī rewrote François Coppée's Pour la Couronne (1895) in the shape of the novel, Fī sabīl al-tāj (1920). Al-Manfalūtī turns a French drama into an Egyptian epic rather than simply introducing a piece of foreign literature by means of translation, so as to spread his call against imperialism and anti-colonialism and his program for fashioning an Egyptian national in the frame of 1919 Revolution. Whereas the author preserves all of the main events and traits of the original story, through commentary and word selection in his translation he orientates a new interpretation of the text. The article suggests that translation in the Nahḍa cannot be seen only as acculturation but, in line with Venuti and Reynolds, should be considered as a new text that expresses the agency of the translators and their cultural environment.