Hackneyed Phrases : Intertextual and Linguistic Migrations in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to The North

Abstract: Tayeb Salih’s world-literary classic Season of Migration to The North (1967) has been read widely in Arabic as well as multiple world languages. Primarily examined in terms that pertain to the postcolonial field of study, it showcases all the well-rehearsed topics such as coloniser- colonised, identity, nationality, culture, hybridity, literature, language, gender, sexuality, historiography, and most importantly for this thesis: migration. Although the novel has been translated into many world languages, it is Johnson-Davies’ famous English translation (1969) that in my view produces a unique dialogue with the Arabic text. This translation is generally much admired, with only a few critiques, but criticism has not quite addressed the fact that it is in Salih’s colonial language, that is the language he himself could have used. Given that most prominent “writing back to the imperial centre” is in the languages of the colonisers, often in creolised versions of those languages, Salih’s production in Arabic begs the question of linguistic hybridity. In this thesis, I will engage in an intertextual and linguistic analysis of the novel to argue that one cannot regard the Arabic text as “the original” and English as the secondary. Rather, both English and Arabic are co-originary languages of this novel. This demonstrates that the core of the novel is a restless migration between dichotomies produced by the colonial history.