Translation as a cultural mediation tool by the example of Rafik Schami’s Damascus Nights (Erzähler der Nacht)

Abstract

Given the advancement of the intercultural literature in many parts of the world, the dialog among cultures has become increasingly more necessary in order to promote the conviviality and the comprehension of the existence of the Other and the Self. The unfolding of this matter has been progressively built in the recent Brazilian context through the translation of foreign authors’ works, granting an access to other culturally-conditioned ways of world conception and reality. In a first moment of the present article, translation is viewed as a cultural transfer tool, given its support in favor of the cultural exchange. The discussion around this matter is illustrated in a second moment, where the book Histórias da Noite (English: Damascus Nights; German: Erzähler der Nacht), by Rafik Schami, Syrian writer who is now exiled in Germany, will be used as our object of study.