Translating the Self in Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir
Translating the Self in Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the link between the notion of ‘cultural translation,’ initially introduced by Homi Bhabha in The Location of Culture (1994), and autobiographical writing by a translingual writer: Edward Said’s memoir, Out of Place (1999). As an Arab-American intellectual, Said culminates his writing career with a memoir, in which he represents the educational years of his life. Said shows through the narrative that the interplay between Arabic and English language and cultures strongly influenced the formation of his identity. Thus, this paper explores reading his memoir as an attempt at ‘cultural translation’ according to which difference is not necessarily trapped in binary oppositions of self/other; East/West; home/foreign land – to name only a few. Difference in this context rather opens a possibility for more fluid boundaries allowing for negotiation and change.

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