Fourteenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The paper presents poems, translations, paintings and sculptures to develop insights into the manners in which a text migrates from one medium or a register into another. Because two of the poems are translations, the paper will also discuss translations as nomadic texts. Specifically, I argue that texts of various genres such as words in Arabic or English, translations, paintings, and sculptures may relate to each other in unpredictable manners. “Text” refers to discursive and non-discursive formations or entities that move in and out of genres, registers, agencies, and traditions. A poem or story, their translations, the paintings, sculptures, and other art forms they may generate, as well as the responses they invite will be treated as texts. As they float in relative autonomy, these texts can form a pool of connections to one another without apparent purpose or plan. Nomadic texts will retain enough independence to ensure clear referencing, but the transformations they demonstrate will be the focal points of my paper. “Nomadic,” thus, refers to the kind of fluid movement characteristic of these texts. The term draws heavily on the deep trajectory of nomadic traditions in Arab cultures. It also draws on Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of “rhizomatic” structures of thought in their A Thousand Plateaus, specifically their argument that a rhizome develops its own roots and the capacity to extend shoots, and hence it is an appropriate concept to address the kind of multiple connections and departures generated by nomadic texts.