"Nothing Has Changed Since the Frankfurt Book Fair"

The Italian orientalist and translator Isabella Camera d'Afflitto is critical of the lack of interest in Arab literature in Europe and the lack of cooperation by Arab countries. Nelly Youssef met her in Cairo

photo: private
The fact that the whole region was invited to the 2004 Frankfurt Book Fair, shows that Europe is ignorant of the diversity of contemporary Arab culture, Professor d'Afflitto says

​​How much presence does Arabic literature have in Italy? Are Italian publishers interested in Arabic literature?

Isabella Camera d'Afflitto: I find that Arabic literature is scarcely represented in Italy. That applies generally throughout Europe, especially because the Arab novelists who are best known in Europe write in French, like Assia Djebar or Tahar Ben Jelloun. Beyond that, a very small number of Arab novelists is known to a very small number of Italian readers.

You often see the names of Latin American or Japanese authors on the Italian or European markets, but I scarcely ever see the names of any writers who are famous in Arab countries.

Even the few well-known Arabic authors don't sell more than 5,000 copies of their works. Compared with the sales figures of, let's say, the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, that's very modest.

I think the reason for this lies in the past. Orientalists were purely scholars and weren't good translators. They translated novels as if they were academic treatises.

Another reason is that the orientalists chose works which appealed to Europeans, and that led to the dissemination of clichés about the Arabs. Europeans currently won't accept any novel which might change their perceptions in that respect.

Unfortunately the Europeans don‘t have much interest in Arabic culture. The best example is what happened at last year's Frankfurt Book Fair. On the one hand, the Arabs themselves missed a great chance, and on the other, it was clear that Europe knows nothing about the Arab world. A single invitation to the whole "Arab world" to come to the Frankfurt Book Fair showed that Europe sees the Arab countries as a single bloc—and that's not correct.

This year the featured country at the Book Fair is Korea. The invitation is directed to one country in East Asia and not to the whole East Asian region. Why didn't they just invite Egypt or Lebanon? Because they didn't know that there is a great literary culture in Egypt and Lebanon. They think that all Arabs are the same, and that's also a cliché.

I've translated more than forty novels by Arabic writers for a small publisher. Among them were Abdalrachman Munif, Edwar al-Charrat, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra und Ibrahim al-Koni. But if I were to offer these writers to one of the big publishers in Italy, they would reject them and justify their decision by saying that no-one knows them and that they wouldn't strike a chord with the readers.

They judge whether an Arabic writer is worth translating by how well known he is in France or Britain. Ibrahim al-Koni is very well known in France, for example, and now, as a result of a translation by the German Arabic scholar Hartmut Fähndrich, he's been able to make some headway in Germany. Even the works of Nagib Mahfus don't sell anything like as well now in Italy as they did after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I think the best-known Arab writers in Italy currently are Munif and Mahmud Darwish—and they are only known in specialist circles and not among ordinary readers. Ordinary readers don't know any Arab books, other than the Thousand and One Nights, the Koran and maybe Tahar Ben Jelloun.

How do you think one can promote the translation of Arabic literature into European languages?

Camera d'Afflitto: I think the Arabs will forever remain world champions in missing every opportunity made available to them. That's not just because they failed to take the chance offered by the Frankfurt Book Fair of increasing the support for translation, but also because of other occasions where they've failed to take advantage of good possibilities. For example, I was involved with other European colleagues in a special project called "Witnesses of the Mediterranean," which was designed to promote Arab literature in Europe.

We translated books into Italian, Spanish, French, German and Polish and published them. The project lasted six years and the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam paid for 60% of the costs. The rest was covered by small publishers in Europe.

When the European Cultural Foundation's finance ran out, we made contact with the relevant people in the various Arab countries and asked for help. We only got friendly words and empty promises. They did nothing.

I think the Arabs missed this chance because this project too was designed on a pan-Arab basis and not specifically for Egyptian or Emirates literature. Every country we contacted only wanted to support its own authors. This shows that the "Arab world" doesn't exist—it's an illusion.

We were frustrated, because we got neither moral support nor thanks nor recognition from any of the publishers in Syria, Tunisia or Egypt to whom we spoke.

We even presented the project to the Arab embassies in European countries, but they didn't put on even one book presentation or invite an author or a translator, although they support Arab painters in Italy. That's all very well, but a painter shows his works in an exhibition and then takes them away. A book stays in the library or in the bookshop.

The Arabs should invest time, effort and money in promoting translation. They put on lots of conferences and festivals, but they can never be bothered to invite the small publishers who specialise in Arab literature in Italy or elsewhere to take part.

What do you see as the modern trends in Arabic literature? Are there points of contact with modern European and American literature?

Camera d'Afflitto: I think the historical novel is the main trend in modern Arabic literature. This genre is currently very widespread in the Arab world. It should be made more well known in Europe, since we in Europe can learn more about Arab history as seen through Arab spectacles with this kind of novel. For example, it's through Tolstoy's novels that we know about Russian history. Before that we had no idea how brutal Napoleon's invasion of Russia was.

As far as similarities between Arabic, European and American literature are concerned, I don't see any. That could be because I don't read a lot of modern West European literature. But I believe that a good book is "good" all over the world, and that it works across boundaries and nationalities.

How do you rate Arabic literature? What are its weaknesses? What should Arab writers learn from their European and American colleagues?

Camera d'Afflitto: There are several weaknesses in Arabic novels. For one thing they tend to be long-winded, with digressions which are not justified and which the readers finds justifiably boring. Sometimes I speak to an author whose works I'm translating and ask him for permission to cut parts of his novel.

Once the work is translated, the writers are often happy that the passages were cut. I think the problem lies in the fact that there's a shortage of editors in Arab publishing houses, unlike in Italian or European publishers.

Arabic authors have to learn to get out of their own skin and look at the world with more open eyes. Perhaps the reason for this narrow point of view is the fact that there are still many crises and wars in the Arab world.

The Arabic novel also has some special virtues: for example, it has plenty of emotion and is concerned with human relationships in a way which we don't find in western novels. And Arab authors know a lot more about Italian and European literature. Many of our books have been translated into Arabic, like, for example, Alberto Moravia.

Who is your favourite writer?

Camera d'Afflitto: That's a question which is very hard to answer. I'm in love with all of Arabic literature and with all the books which I have read and translated. I feel as if they were my children. A mother loves all her children for different reasons. But I have a special love for Abdalrachman Munif, because his books have an important message for the reader. In addition I would recommend Ibrahim Al-Koni, the Egyptian writer Gamal al-Ghitani, the Lebanese Huda Barakat and the Palestinian Ghassan Kanafani—in spite of his difficult style.

Interview: Nelly Youssef

Translation from German: Michael Lawton

© Qantara.de 2005

Isabella Camera d'Afflitto has been professor for Arabic literature and language at the University of Naples since 1993. She is the editor of the series "Modern Arabic writers" which is published by Jouvence. She has translated more than forty novels and published numerous articles and studies on Arabic literature.

Qantara.de

Dossier
The Arab World at the Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair 2004 saw the first joint appearance of the majority of the Arab countries on an international culturally ambitious platform. The countries were divided on several issues and had to accept the presence of exiled Arab authors at the fair. We're taking a look behind the scenes.