Reading Iraqi Women’s Novels in English Translation / Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia

Abstract

“second modernity” of the mid-twentieth century (10). That said, there is much to like in English Poetry and Modern Arabic Verse. Iskander’s evaluation of the different translations of the Waste Land is especially interesting. Unlike Luʾluʾa, Iskander seems less concerned with pointing out translation mistakes—though, where relevant, he does—and more interested in evaluating the different choices translators make and appreciating how these choices were either necessitated or made possible by the target text or, at times, by the translator’s politics. These engagements with translation criticism will be of particular interest to both translators as well as scholars of Arab modernism.