The translation of the Arab Spring: the case of Libya
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Date
2020-11
Authors
Khalil, Nessrin Ali
Journal Title
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Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Early 2011 saw the rise of protests across the Arab world, including Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Libya. As the events escalated, leaders reacted to the protests by addressing the citizens of their respective countries. These speeches became historical milestones in the Arab Spring events (Almutairi, 2018: 95). Shortly after their speeches, certain segments thereof gained national and international popularity and were translated into iconic depictions within popular culture. One such an example is the translation of the first speech of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the wake of the uprisings, on 22 February 2011. Countless translations of Gaddafi’s phrase, zenga zenga [alley by alley], said towards the end of his hour-and-a-half-long speech, spread online and became part of an international lexicon (Bhatt, 2012: 18). Moreover, Gaddafi’s speech, in its totality, became known as “the Zenga Zenga Speech” (Peel, 2012; Hilsum, 2012: 43 of 263; Bowen, 2013: 95; El Gomati, 2014: 131; Weissman, 2016: 672). The phrase travelled through a variety of mediums, such as simultaneous interpreting on news channels, translations of excerpts published in national and international news reports, satirical songs and cartoons. As a result, the meaning crossed not only geographic, linguistic and cultural borders, but also the borders between politics and comedy, language and music, defiance and witticism. As this study conducts a comprehensive investigation of how Gaddafi’s first speech in the Libyan revolution of 2011 was intersemiotically translated into different zenga zenga signs, translation is conceptualised according to Marais’s (2019) (bio)semiotic theory of translation. Furthermore, because the (bio)semiotic theory is based on Peircean semiotics, the study examines the intersemiotic translations of the zenga zenga signs using Peirce’s triad and sign categorisations. Therefore, the study provides a rigorous description of each sign in order to trace how the translations unfolded and became so popular.
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Keywords
Dissertation (M.A. (Linguistics and Language Practice))--University of the Free State, 2020, Arab Spring, Intersemiotic translation, (Bio)semiotic theory