ABSTRACT
The last 25 years have seen Self-Help (henceforth S-H) literature transform from a niche market into a flourishing pop-culture industry throughout the globe. Not only does American S-H traverse linguistic, cultural, and geographical boundaries through translation, but also become a reference point for many local authors, catalyzing the emergence of original such works in different locales. Despite the abundance of translations, however, this genre remains strikingly neglected in the field of translation studies. This chapter takes the translation of S-H in the Arab world as an illustrative case. Viewing S-H as a cross-cultural genre will provide an overview through the prism of translation studies in general and translation into Arabic in particular. The chapter will not provide an exhaustive analysis, but a blueprint whose broad lines can serve as points of departure upon which to undertake fully-fledged research on the translation of S-H into Arabic and other languages. The chapter will address three issues: (1) the nature of the S-H literature, its position and significance to the field of translation studies; (2) the position and status of the S-H genre within the literary polysystem; and (3) its emergence in the Arab world as an attempt to sketch a historical background to fill the lacuna of knowledge that marks this genre. It will also outline suggestions that can guide future research.
