The Mistranslation of History in Bella Darwish's The Dog and the Black Stone
The mistranslation of history in Bella Darwish's The Dog and the Black Stone.
"Think not, son in law, that when you be arguing with myself, as you be doing right this second, that you be arguing with a fool. For, the fact of the matter is, my child, that I - myself - me, am in fact, the man who bes arguing with a fool"
- Uncle, The Dog and the Black Stone
Bella Darwish's postcolonial 1983 masterpiece, The Dog and the Black Stone, operates on a multitude of levels, casting a shadow of doubt upon the construction of reality as many people see it. In fact, some of criticism level against the book during its initial publication spoke exactly to this rewriting (or, as John Joseph calls ...
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shouting at and above each other, spreading lies, public dissent.
The very first sentence of The Dog and the Black Stone is:
"A serpent attempted in his ugly manly way to beguile myself - oh me poor me! - but I with my womanly wit (O, breastly bounty!) sank my teeth into his delicious if leathery bodice and chonked on that oh godawful smelling creature, killing the dick-shaped fucklord dead." (3)
To readers of the King James Bible, the meaning here is obvious. In Genesis, Eve, after being questioned by the Almighty God as to why she ate the apple that he had specifically instructed her and her husband not to eat, she replies "the serpent beguiled me and I did eat". And of course, you don't need me to tell you that the Fall, a theme which has, unfortunately, persisted for millennia, started here - a woman, Eve, who represents all women, committed the first sin, and all of mankind has been doomed forever since. In Darwish's feminist revision of the beginning of ...
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The Mistranslation of History in Bella Darwish's The Dog and the Black Stone. (2019, April 10). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Mistranslation-History-Bella-Darwishs-Dog-Black/107002
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"The Mistranslation of History in Bella Darwish's The Dog and the Black Stone." Essayworld.com. April 10, 2019. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Mistranslation-History-Bella-Darwishs-Dog-Black/107002.
"The Mistranslation of History in Bella Darwish's The Dog and the Black Stone." Essayworld.com. April 10, 2019. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Mistranslation-History-Bella-Darwishs-Dog-Black/107002.
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