Geomancing Dib's Transcultural Expression in Translation

Abstract

In her article "Geomancing Dib's Transcultural Expression in Translation" Madeleine Campbell analyses Mohammed Dib's treatment of symbols and mythologies from Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions. Campbell contextualizes lexical, syntactic, and intertextual elements in Dib's texts with reference to Oriental schemas including the pre-Islamic Mu'allaqāt, The Conference of the Birds by Farīd ud-Dīn Attār and elements of Sufi symbolism. Further, Campbell examines how these elements serve to develop a liminal yet multilingual "reference system" within the framework of the French language. Dib's poetic aesthetic goes beyond surrealism in the intensity of its ontological enquiry and appears to go beyond Sufism in its denial of the "essence" or "absolute" central to the Sufi quest. Dib displaces the dualism of essence and existence by seeking the in-between, the relation, the movement between subject and object. Through this singular syncretic approach, pre-Islamic evocation and Sufi-inspired form and image are transformed to deliver a distinctive contemporary nomadic oeuvre in a secular expression of the Sufi "Imagination" (after Henri Corbin) which invites a performative approach to translation. © Purdue University.