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Adab Colloquium: The conceptual resonance of Arabic literary terms through the prism of Jinās

The conceptual resonance of Arabic literary terms through the prism of Jinās

Join us for the Adab Colloquium with Presenter Hany Rashwan, University of Birmingham and Discussant Stefan Sperl, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

In this colloquium, Dr Hany Rashwan will discuss his article entitled Arabic Jinās is not Pun, Wortspiel, Calembour, or Paronomasia: A Post-Eurocentric Approach to the Conceptual Untranslatability of Literary Terms in Arabic and Ancient Egyptian Cultures. He argues that literary and philosophical terms cannot be considered universal because they are not similar to the terms used in applied sciences, such as chemistry or mathematics, where each term means the same in every country and context. Each language creates its own literary terms that conceptually and culturally express its own literary culture. Non-European literary terms should be foreignized rather than domesticated.

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