ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the constraints and pressures of a system of representation have conditioned translation from Arabic literature. The term 'discourse' is primarily used to refer to the "investigation of language in use, in contrast to traditional structural linguistics which has focused on language as a system". The injection of ideas and paradigms from a basket of disciplines into translation studies has contributed a great deal to the debate on the formation of cultural identities and/or representation of foreign cultures, what Lefevere labels "composing the other" through translation. Religion, history, values and social organisation are interrelated and are all mediated via language. Through its language, a culture is shared and learned behaviour that is transmitted across generations for the purposes of promoting group survival and growth as well as the demarcation of itself vis-a-vis other cultures and their respective members.
