you should respond to two posts written by your peers. (Please note that you will only be able to see other posts after you submit your own.) Your responses should each be at least 150 words and should follow the guidelines for productive classroom dialogue and “netiquette” that are outlined in our syllabus. Some suggested strategies you may use in your response include providing a personal reaction, bringing up a point of agreement or disagreement, asking a clarifying question, or thinking of an additional example that further proves or complicates what your peer has said. The purpose of this step is to allow our forums to be an interactive space where we talk to each other rather than at each other and are able to meet our learning outcome of building knowledge collaboratively.  Post 1: Season of Migration to the North by Tayed Salih was different from what I expected when I originally read the description on the back. I did not expect it to talk about many different controversial topics. One problem that I had when reading the first half of this book was that I found myself getting confused at times because it was very fast paced. I’m not sure if that is just how the book was written or if it has to do with the fact that it has been translated. There were many different themes and central conflicts discussed in the novel just in the first half of it. However, in my opinion the most important themes discussed are the comparison and connections between Eastern and Western cultures, sex, and women. This book shows many times in which people from different cultures start a dialogue of discussion and there is a lot of miscommunication. There are many times in which Mustafa talks about Arabic poetry and other topics but there is not much attempt to try and understand any sides and different ways of thinking. In another sections in the book, there are discussions about Sudan and women in the East in comparison to the West and there are misconceptions that are brought up but never addressed or acknowledged. While reading this, I keep thinking back to myself that neither side ever attempts to communicate with the other seriously and directly to understand each point of view or discuss their differences and opinions. Therefore, this then continues to deepen the gap between both cultures. Other themes in the first half of the book include issues about women and sex. Multiple times women are spoken about as objects and being there only for the pleasure of sex. Again, I wonder if this is what the original book implies or if the translators misconceptions are being portrayed in his translation. In that case, it creates a bad image on Sudan that might not be the whole truth or view and idealizes the west. Many times I felt like the book portrayed that the West is what everyone in the book is trying to be like because they are the correct and this is the best way. It also looked at everything in Sudan and the experiences that were faced through a west ...

1. you should respond to two posts written by your peers. (Please
note that you will only be able to see other posts after you
submit your own.) Your responses should each be at least 150
words and should follow the guidelines for productive
classroom dialogue and “netiquette” that are outlined in our
syllabus. Some suggested strategies you may use in your
response include providing a personal reaction, bringing up a
point of agreement or disagreement, asking a clarifying
question, or thinking of an additional example that further
proves or complicates what your peer has said. The purpose of
this step is to allow our forums to be an interactive space where
we talk to each other rather than at each other and are able to
meet our learning outcome of building knowledge
collaboratively.
Post 1:
Season of Migration to the North by Tayed Salih was different
from what I expected when I originally read the description on
the back. I did not expect it to talk about many different
controversial topics. One problem that I had when reading the
first half of this book was that I found myself getting confused
at times because it was very fast paced. I’m not sure if that is
just how the book was written or if it has to do with the fact
that it has been translated. There were many different themes
and central conflicts discussed in the novel just in the first half
of it. However, in my opinion the most important themes
discussed are the comparison and connections between Eastern
and Western cultures, sex, and women. This book shows many
times in which people from different cultures start a dialogue of
discussion and there is a lot of miscommunication. There are
many times in which Mustafa talks about Arabic poetry and
other topics but there is not much attempt to try and understand

2. any sides and different ways of thinking. In another sections in
the book, there are discussions about Sudan and women in the
East in comparison to the West and there are misconceptions
that are brought up but never addressed or acknowledged. While
reading this, I keep thinking back to myself that neither side
ever attempts to communicate with the other seriously and
directly to understand each point of view or discuss their
differences and opinions. Therefore, this then continues to
deepen the gap between both cultures. Other themes in the first
half of the book include issues about women and sex. Multiple
times women are spoken about as objects and being there only
for the pleasure of sex. Again, I wonder if this is what the
original book implies or if the translators misconceptions are
being portrayed in his translation. In that case, it creates a bad
image on Sudan that might not be the whole truth or view and
idealizes the west. Many times I felt like the book portrayed
that the West is what everyone in the book is trying to be like
because they are the correct and this is the best way. It also
looked at everything in Sudan and the experiences that were
faced through a western perspective which touches on the
concept of orientalism.
Doing a closer reading as done in class I would connect it to the
concepts of the different translation tools. Based off of what
I’ve read so far I would argue that the translator of Season of
Migration to the North uses more of the “foreignizing”
translation technique but in some parts in the book there is also
the “domesticating” translation technique that can be pointed
out. I think that the translator used more of the “foreignizing”
translation tool due to the fact that it does keep words from
Arabic in there rather than using an easier English word to
translate it. It was also at times harder to read because of its
poetic way of it being written and the way it was originally
written in Arabic. This made it harder for the reader to fully
understand but was a more authentic portrayal of the original

3. writing and word choice.
post 2:
Throughout the first half of the SEASON OF MIGRATION
TO THE NORTH, I recognized a theme that I found significant
in the novel. What I’m going to focus on is the relationship
between the two distinctive cultures (Europe and Sudan). One of
the biggest things I’ve noticed when reading, the Sundaneses
tend to push away from western culture. An example would be
when the narrator is accidently spoke in English to one of the
characters, Mahjoub, he questioned the narrator if being in
Europe has made her lose Arabic and wanted them to be
“anglicized” (p.14). Keep in mind that Sudan was colonized by
the British at the time and one of the biggest things of
colonization was the removal of culture from the locals. The
people of Sudan are understandingly angered about being a
British colony. That explains why Mahjoub reacts the way he
did towards the narrator because he doesn’t want his culture to
be gone and turned to Angelized because some locals are
speaking English. Another thing I noticed is when Mustafa goes
to Cairo for his studies, he met the headmaster of the high
school in Cairo named Mr. Robinson and his wife. When his
wife hugged Mustafa, that made him sexually attracted towards
her and imagines a large mountain in Cairo, “to which my camel
had carried me, was an European woman just like Mrs.
Robinson,” (p.23). Mustafa viewed Mrs. Robinson as exotic
because he has never seen European woman before since he’s
from Arabic culture, so this would make him have a specific
type of feeling. When Mustafa compares Mrs. Robinson to
camels, it means that he’s shunned by the features of European
beauty and carrying his feelings as he is trying to process her
looks. Later in the book, Mustafa is in trail for the murder of
Jean Morris, his wife, and the contribution for the suicide of
Ann Hammond, Sheila Greenwood, and Isabella Seymour, his

4. girlfriends. Mustafa defends from Professor Foster-Keen was
that he and his girlfriends are a conflict of two cultures saying
that “the germ of a deadly disease that assailed them a thousand
years,” (p.29). Even though Mustafa did want to be guilty, I
still find it interesting that the Professor would use the idea of
two worlds clashing. The idea that this murders and suicide
wasn’t Mustafa fault, but how culture misunderstanding caused
this. When the professors said the woman that they had disease
that assailed a thousand years, it seems that he’s talking about
the flaws of Western society and how it has affected induvial in
Europe which caused the demise of the women not actually
Mustafa himself.
I don’t have any question about the fist half of the
reading, I really to enjoy it. Based on the readings about
translation, SEASONS OF MIGRATION TO THE NORTH ,
when it comes to transitioning to different characters story, I
feel this kind of strategy seems to be Foreignizing because I
never seen the type of transition in western books before. I
sometimes need to realize it the narrator is talking about her
story or that of the character’s.