THE SATANIC VERSES

RELIGION AS DISCOURSE AND

CULTURAL TRANSLATION

MADE BY-

SHREYA SOOD 13280SHRISHMA KUDADAH

13281SIMRAN SONI 13292

SUGANDHA PRIYA 13297

VANDITA NIM 1331125TH MARCH 2014

RELIGION AS DISCOURSE

Religion is a discourse because while living in a society, following a specific

culture; a person starts accepting some stereotypes related to religion.

Discourse is unavoidable.

Religious discourse extends over an almost indefinite range.

FEW STEREOTYPES:

CLOTHING

ORNAMENTS & ARTICLES

SIGNS & SYMBOLS

DIFFERENT NAMES IN

DIFFERENT RELIGIONS

RELATION TO TERRORISM

CULTURAL TRANSLATION

Culture :total approach to life of particular groups of people and

their ways of behaviour

Practice of translation involves cultural differences

To initiate the target-language reader into the sensibilities of the

source language culture

Withdraws the separation between the source and the target

language

PROBLEMS DURING CULTURAL

TRANSLATIONcomplex task

some societies and cultures are dominant

compared to others

words and phrases grounded in one culture-

impossible to translate in terms of another

EXAMPLES

use plurals to address elders to show their respect

Indians live with extended families- concept alien in western

countries different words for each relation unaware of family values

Beliefs and feelings change from culture to culture

Dress codes or ornaments and their symbols

better understanding of

language and culture

translators help enlarge the

vocabulary of the target

language-coin new expressions

CHAPTERS

1. Angel Gibreel

2. Mahound

3. Ellowen Deeowen

4. Ayesha

5. A city visible but

unseen

6. Return to Jahilia

7. The angel

Azraeel

8. The parting of

the Arabian Sea

9. A wonderful lamp

GIBREELFARISHTA

SALADIN CHAMCHA

INTRODUCTION

Rushdie believes culture belongs to everyone & one

can interpret in his/her own way.

The ‘Satanic Verses’ can be understood as revisionist

interpretation of Islamic history.

It shows dominant discourses as nationalism, religious

essentialism, etc.

TITLE OF THE NOVEL REACTIONS ACROSS THE WORLD RUSHDIE’S CLAIM

THE SATANIC VERSES

• “The Satanic Qur’an” for the impossibility of finding equal terms (equivalence) in several Asiatic languages, is very often misread, through the aggrandizement of the mass media, as a sacrilegious insult by many pious Muslims who have no idea about the content of the book.

• The offence lies in the implications resulting from translating it into the Arabic – Al-Ayat ash-Shaytaniya, the Persian – Ayat-e Shetani, and the Turkish – Seytan Aytleri, which would lead to a broad retranslation as The Satanic Qur’an.

Although Rushdie claims that “the phrase comes from al-Tabari, one of the canonical Islamic sources” (The Observer, January 22, 1989).

MUHAMMADThe Arab prophet who, according to Islam, was the last messenger of

Allah.

The ‘Quran’ is believed by Muslims to have been revealed to

Muhammad from God.

Muhammad established in the light of Quran the religious, social &

political tenets.

Greatest of all prophets.

For conservative Muslim, Islam is way more than just a religion.

‘MAHOUND’ IN SATANIC VERSES

Name used by Christian writers in past to vilify Muhammad

Word means ‘devil’ or ‘false Prophet’

Use of this character, very painful for Muslims

Two sides: Angelic & Demonic

SUBMISSION INSTEAD OF ISLAM

Against the fatal certitudes of orthodox Islam,

the theme of doubt, and loss of faith, is one of

the most persistent in Rushdie's book.

This was sufficient to bring the charge of

apostasy, and the penalty of death, upon him,

particularly from Iran. ('The name of the new

religion is Submission', p.125).

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is

self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal

tendencies.

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies

Islam is a religious tradition which in manyinfluential quarters is self-consciously seeking to purify itself from modernizing, liberal tendencies

HIJABACTUAL SATANIC

VERSES• veil covers head and chest

• females beyond the age of puberty

• in presence of adult males

•METAPHYSICAL DIMESION:"the veil which separates man or the world from God"

•use of the name 'The Curtain' for the Jahilia brothel

•alludes to Muhammad’s divinely inspired decree

“WHORES AND WRITERS, MAHOUND - WE ARE THE PEOPLE YOU CAN’T FORGIVE .” S A I D B Y B A A L , PA G E 4 0 , T H E S ATA N I C V E R S E S

insight into the Jahilia

plotline and theocracies

more generally

treat women and dissident

writers especially harshly

refers to Mahound’s

biggest flaw – his pride

whores hurt Mahound’s

pride by adopting the

personalities of Mahound’s

wives

reveals Mahound’s

narcissism

AYESHAThe bloody and unsuccessful military campaign

conducted after Muhammad’s death by his favourite wife,

Ayesha, against the fourth Khalifa, the prophet’s son- in-

law, Ali, is a historical reference often cited by

fundamentalists (both Sunni and Shi’ite) as proof that

women should not enter public life (Aravamudan 13).

The story of Ayesha makes free use of a widely

reported episode that happened in Karachi in

1983 when Naseem Fatima led thirty eight Shi’a followers into the sea

which they expected to part for them.

RUSHDIE’S TRANSLATION

He takes from Islamic history Ayesha, the name of the

Prophet’s favourite wife, and uses the same name for the

most popular of the prostitutes in the Jahilia brothel, for

the Muslim visionary who led her fellow villagers to

drown in the sea, and for one of the girl prostitutes in

London. Sacred and profane versions of womanhood

become fused and indistinguishable by this linguistic

sleight of hand.

He has shown the bloody image of Prophet’s favourite

wife.

CRITICISM OF ISLAMBY THE INTRODUCTION OF SALMAN

Mahound failed to detect the Persian scribe Salman’s deliberate alteration of God’s verses .

Salman the Persian, an immigrant convert to Islam and the scribe of the dream prophet Mahound

Salman shares a first name with Rushdie; in

addition, his Persian ethnicity makes him an

outsider among the followers of Submission.

Salman’s position as a scribe, and his invention of

the spike pit (in the novel) show that he is more

intellectually inclined than his peers, and that he

has a creative personality – both qualities that

Rushdie might well identify with.

Salman, when he starts deliberately mis-

transcribing Mahound’s dictation, discovers that

his “poor words could not be distinguished from the

Revelation by God’s own Messenger” (367).

Salman also refers to “one of Muhammad’s closest companions

a major figure in Islamic history, Salman al-Farsi

(‘Salman the Persian’)”

“some fringe Islamic sects hold that he was actually the angel Gabriel in disguise”

JOEL KUORTTI OFFERS ANOTHER ANNOTATION OF THE HISTORICAL

FACT WHICH RUSHDIE’S FICTIONAL EPISODE IS BASED UPON:

A similar tradition is recorded, where the Muhammad employed ‘Abd-Allah Ibn Abi Sarh as his scribe

But the latter began to make changes in the recitation and finally lost his faith as these verses were accepted by Muhammad

Later ‘Abd-Allah was sentenced to death and pardoned in the same way as Salman Farsi

CONCLUSIONuse of indecent language with sacred characters in Islam

the sacred is discussed through everyday language of the streets

dared to challenge the supremacy of faith in the minds of millions

more universal statement: the way power corrupts ideals, because

every person has both angelic and satanic potential.

conflict between fact and fantasy, truth and falsehood

THANK YOU