ArticlePDF Available

The Translator’s Ideology: A Study of Three Persian Translations of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

Authors:
Amin Amirdabbaghian at University of Malaya
Amin Amirdabbaghian
Krishnavanie Shunmugam at University of Malaya
Krishnavanie Shunmugam
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract

The ideology and worldviews of a community may be shifted and modified through social changes brought about by political upheavals. In a country like Iran, the Islamic revolution (1979/80) has played a major role in re-shaping the ideology of the governing body which among many other things involves modifications in the language policy. After the revolution, Persian speakers were encouraged to be more conservative in their use of language. As a result, those who tended to produce discourse which was more conservative and Islam-oriented became more popular and respected among the Iranian people. Ideology is one of the major factors which influences the manipulation of language use in translation. Prefaces and introductions which form the paratexts to a translated product often contain expressions of a translator’s ideology, and this usually manifests itself in the translation product. This study aims to describe the ideological impact of the social situation both in the pre- and post-revolutionary era in Iran on translations of George Orwell’s famous political novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) into Persian. This study will, therefore, compare the prefaces in three Persian translations of Nineteen Eighty-Four which were produced before and after the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution. The three Persian translations are by Mehdi Bahremand (1976), Zhila Sazegar (1980) and Saleh Hosseini (1982). This study employs Farahzad’s (2012) second dimension of the three-dimensional translation criticism model i. e. paratextual analysis alongside Lefevere’s (1992) theory of manipulation to investigate some of the lexical differences that manifest themselves in the pre-and post-revolutionary Persian translations of Nineteen Eighty-Four which reflect the personal ideologies of the three Persian translators as explicitly or implicitly expressed in their prefaces.
Content uploaded by Amin Amirdabbaghian
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Amin Amirdabbaghian on Apr 30, 2019
Content may be subject to copyright.
This shareable PDF can be hosted on any platform or network and is fully compliant with publisher copyright.
The Translator’s Ideology: A Study of Three Persian Translations of George Orwell’s Nineteen
Eighty-Four
Amin Amirdabbaghian, Krishnavanie Shunmugam
Lebende Sprachen, April 2019, De Gruyter
DOI: 10.1515/les-2019-0001
Translator's Ideology Ideology in
Translation
Photo by João Silas on Unsplash
What is it about?
Ideology plays a crucial role in translation and this paper surveys on translator's
system of beliefs (ideology) and its inuence on three dierent Persian translation of
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. This study makes an eort to demonstrate the
translator's ideologies in three dierent eras i.e. before, during and after the Islamic
Revolution in Iran.
Why is it important?
This study tries to show that in dierent eras the translator's personal and
social/cultural/political ideologies are in competition to be demonstrated in the
target text.
Perspectives
In partnership with:
Read Publication
https://link.growkudos.com/1e7vb8rbvnk
Dr. Amin Amirdabbaghian (Author)
University of Malaya
Writing this article was a great pleasure as it has co-authors with whom I have had
long-standing collaborations. I hope this article makes what people might think is a
boring, slightly abstract area like ideological issues in translation studies, kind of
interesting and maybe even exciting.
The following have contributed to this page: Dr. Amin Amirdabbaghian
PDF generated on 30-Apr-2019
Create your own PDF summaries at www.growkudos.com.
... The another attempt is referred to the study of Amirdabbaghian and Shunmugam (2019a) with concentrating on critically studying the three Persian translations of the famous political novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell (1949) that were produced before and after the Islamic revolution in Iran, in order to reveal the ideological impacts of social condition in pre and post -revolutionary era in Iran. The research was conducted on the basis of the second level of the TC model proposed by Farahzad (2012), paratextual level, and the theory of manipulation of André Lefevere (1992) to examine the lexical choices of the Persian translators (Amirdabbaghian & Shunmugam, 2019a). ...
... The another attempt is referred to the study of Amirdabbaghian and Shunmugam (2019a) with concentrating on critically studying the three Persian translations of the famous political novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell (1949) that were produced before and after the Islamic revolution in Iran, in order to reveal the ideological impacts of social condition in pre and post -revolutionary era in Iran. The research was conducted on the basis of the second level of the TC model proposed by Farahzad (2012), paratextual level, and the theory of manipulation of André Lefevere (1992) to examine the lexical choices of the Persian translators (Amirdabbaghian & Shunmugam, 2019a). The Persian translations which were selected, as the data of this critical study belonged to Mehdi Bahremand (1976), Zhila Sazegar (1980) and Saleh Hosseini (1982 (Amirdabbaghian & Shunmugam, 2019a). ...
... The research was conducted on the basis of the second level of the TC model proposed by Farahzad (2012), paratextual level, and the theory of manipulation of André Lefevere (1992) to examine the lexical choices of the Persian translators (Amirdabbaghian & Shunmugam, 2019a). The Persian translations which were selected, as the data of this critical study belonged to Mehdi Bahremand (1976), Zhila Sazegar (1980) and Saleh Hosseini (1982 (Amirdabbaghian & Shunmugam, 2019a). ...
A Translation Criticism of the Persian Translation of "A**hole No More" Written by Xavier Crement
Article
  • Oct 2019
  • JALLR
Translation is affected by the different meta-textual factors of target context such as, ideology, politics, norms, and culture, and the rule of fidelity or being faithful to the Source Text (ST) in the process of translation has been affected or breached by such these meta-textual factors. On the other hand, in recent years, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), as a multidisciplinary science derived from applied linguistics, has been entered the field of Translation Studies (TS) and has been used by the scholars of this field to reveal the hidden linguistic deviations and the possible roots of manipulation acts in the process of translation. In this regard, this study focused on the famous and bestseller book entitle, "A**hole No More" by Xavier Crement (1990), to critically compare and analyze its Persian translation with it and to reveal the root(s) of the manipulation strategies used by the Persian translator. The researcher applied Pirhayati's (2019) model of translation criticism (TC) as the means for this comparative study. The results of the comparisons and analyses indicated that the Persian translation of this book is affected by the two factors of economic and ideology and depicted that the Islamic attitude, Islamic culture, and Islamic polices as the three main factors which root in the Islamic ideology caused the translator to employ the manipulation strategies. Those who may benefit from this research are translation students, translation trainers, translation criticizers, and the scholars of TS.
View
... This examination has been carried out through various theoretical approaches. Notable studies in this domain include those by Jamshidian and Mohammadi (2012), Amirdabbaghian and Shunmugam (2019), Pirhayati (2019), Amirdabbaghian and Shangeetha (2020) and Naghmeh-Abbaspour and Amini (2022). They have primarily used different theoretical frameworks to explore these aspects. ...
Cultural Perspectives in English Translation: The Story of Crow and Snake From Panchatantra
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2024
The problem is that although the culture and language are blended, the linguistic elements sometimes roughly demonstrate cultural dimensions in translated products. In other words, a cultural translation usually demands an understanding of linguistic i.e. culturally bound terms and expressions as well as extra-linguistic elements including cultural ones. Since literature is a nation's cultural resource, the issue becomes even more complicated when literary translation is being involved. To our knowledge, there is no original Panchatantra left in India and all we have today are translations in different languages. To this end, the Persian version has always been considered the source text since the book was first translated into Persian in 550 CE. Therefore, the English translation of the story Crow and Snake is selected from Panchatantra as the target text and investigated employing Bassnett and Lefevere's (1992) Cultural Theory with a focus on interpretive Discourse Analysis (DA) as analytical frameworks. The Persian text is the translation of Monshi, reprinted in 2010 and the English translation was done by Ryder in 1925. The findings reveal that the relationship between language and culture still remains complicated, and yet the lack of cultural understanding among the translators leads to violation and distortion of the intended messages and meanings embedded in source texts. It is quite safe then to say that the lack of cultural knowledge highly influences the translation.
View
... In religious English texts, translators use archaic words to historically link to established beliefs throughout the course of time and to ensure consistency and continuity, which can be traced back to Old and Middle English, such as thou, thee, thrice, behold, whence, henceforth, thy, thence and thine. Amirdabbaghian and Shunmugam (2019) contend that religious translation is characterized by its use of specialized lexical items, and it entails the occurrence of distinctively theological words such as "Islam," "belief," "statement of faith," "alms -giving'', ''pilgrimage," "paradise," "hell," "death," or names and attributes of God such as "Allah," "Almighty," "the Merciful," as well as names of religious figures like "Prophet Muhammad," and "Prophet Abraham,". Religious lexical entails vocabulary requiring explicit historical elucidation, usually with considerable emotional overtones depending on the intensity of the user's belief. ...
Evaluation of the Performance of KKU’s Students in Translating Untranslated Quranic Verses from Skopos Theory Perspective
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2023
This study focuses on evaluating the techniques used by KKU students majoring in the English language, and they study a translation course about translating Islamic religious texts. Furthermore, it accentuates the notion of untranslatability, its causes, and its types. The study also explains the challenges of translating Islamic religious texts. Additionally, the study demonstrates translation strategies taught to the students throughout the course for the purpose of translating Islamic religious texts. The study is based on a qualitative approach entailing a critical interpretative translation case study design, and it employs purposive sampling without a statistical representation, focusing on the students’ implementation of translational strategies and techniques at a micro level and macro level regarding untranslated items in the Holy Quran and Hadith. The data was collected by skimming and scanning every verse that was possibly interposed by students’ translational work of a focus group. Moreover, the researchers use interviewing as a form of data collection, which involves asking participants open-ended questions. The study concludes that teaching the students strategies and techniques of translating Islamic religious texts, accompanied by immediate practice in terms of tasks, assists students in translating in high quality regarding accuracy and adequacy. The study recommends that students should be taught techniques of translating Islamic religious texts segmentally accompanying from both perspectives -theory and practice.
View
... The ideology of the translator and the ideology of translation refer to two different things. The translator ideology refers to the problem of the translator's system of ideas and beliefs that are intentionally or unintentionally inserted into the translation text, while the system of ideas and beliefs is not found in the source language text (Al-Harahsheh & Al-Omari, 2019; Amirdabbaghian & Shunmugam, 2019;Mäntynen & Kalliokoski, 2018). Conversely, the ideology of translation refers to the issue of good and bad, whether or not a translation is seen from the reader's perspective (Al Farisi, 2020;Venuti, 2017). ...
The ideology of translators in Quranic translation: lessons learned from Indonesia
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2022
Albeit research into Qur’an translation has been widely undertaken, little empirical research reports on the ideology of translators, particularly from the translation technique perspective. This research, therefore, aims at exploring the representation of the ideology of Qur’an Translators in Indonesia. The present critical translation case study design used the Qur’an translation produced by The Ministry of Religious Affairs (official) and Muhammad Thalib (unofficial) as the data source. To analyze the data, this research adopted theories from Molina and Albir, Leuven-Zwart, and Nord. The findings indicate that the practice of Qur’an translation in Indonesia was subjective, ideological, and reader-driven. The translation works from the official representative were based on moderate Islamic practices, while the unofficial one was found to contain transnational Islamic ideology. Translators’ ideology can be traced through translation techniques and translators’ backgrounds. This research suggests that the Quranic translation can be undertaken across languages because, in addition to making the text arbitrary, it also has a certain religious ideology in line with the interests and socio-cultural-political background of the translator and the target reader.
View
... Our analysis differs from these works in the sense that we only look at target texts. Very few scholars have done the same, that is, analyzing target texts without taking into consideration the original: Some exceptions include Bastin and Castrillón (2004), who analyzed the Spanish target text and the paratext of the Lettre aux Espagnols américains (Viscardo y Guzmán, 1799), Oktar and Kansu-Yetkiner (2012), who analyzed the forewords to Turkish translations of a text originally published in English, and Amirdabbaghian and Shunmugam (2019), who also analyzed forewords, this time of Persian translations of George Orwell's 1984. ...
Tension in translation: Spain’s and Catalonia’s discourse on independence
Article
  • Feb 2022
In the aftermath of the 2010 legal and political crisis surrounding the status of Catalonia within Spain, the Catalan pro-independence civil society undertook an extensive campaign during which they produced, translated and distributed many documents in favor of independence. The aim of this campaign was to make the international community, especially the European Union, aware of the Catalan independence cause and ultimately to garner support from outside Catalonia and Spain. Our study aims to understand the way pro-independence discourse in translation depicts the crisis at large, and more specifically the relationship between Catalonia and Spain in the early stages of the crisis. To this end, we conducted a critical discourse analysis using Chilton and Schäffner’s strategic functions, drawing on three books produced, translated and distributed between 2010 and 2014 and that deal primarily with the independence of this autonomous community of Spain.
View
Discourse analysis of texts on Iraq-Iran War: A case study of Persian to English narrations
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2023
While critical discourse analysis has gained solid ground in war literature and narratives, few studies have used this analytical tool to scrutinize the translation of ideology in the literature relating to war. This study aimed to analyze how ideology was (re)produced and translated in the Iraq-Iran War narrations. To this end, a sample from a corpus of such narrations was selected and analyzed based on Farahzad’s (2012) CDA model. The results showed that ideologies produced in the proto-texts were rendered in the meta-texts with a few alterations at the textual level and with no change at the semiotic level. The findings indicated the role of ideology in shaping the translated text and revealed how language can be manipulated as a social practice to support ideologies, maintain power, and serve the interests of powerful groups in society. Such materials could also shape the reader’s mind about war. Parallel studies would shed more light on the function of ideology in war literature, narratives and translation processes. This research has implications for professional translators, translation educators, translation teachers and students as well as policymakers for publications of translated texts loaded with ideologies, raising their awareness regarding the importance of critical discourse analysis in translation studies to trace hidden ideologies in texts and meta-texts.
View
Ideological Manipulation of Translation through Translator’s Comments: A Case Study of Barks’ Translation of Rumi’s Poetry
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2021
As purposefully crafted information around a text, paratext is a critical platform for ideological manipulation in translation. Translators’ comments as a form of paratext can cause ideological deviations between source and target texts that diminish the ideological context of the source text. On this ground, this study aimed to explore translators’ comments and how they can subtly recontextualize the ideology of texts and reframe them in new ideological contexts. Thus, choosing Coleman Barks’ translations of Rumi’s poetry as a case study. It aimed to probe the congruency of Rumi’s ideology with the ideology embedded in the translator’s comments on the verses. The study employed critical discourse analysis as its analytical methodology and explored the collected controversial examples of the translator’s comments. The findings illustrated a high level of ideological deviation between the source and target texts. Moreover, the findings implied the translator’s dominant approach toward a text from an inferior language comparing the superior English language. It has shown that ideological fidelity in translation is not only confined to texts but includes paratexts as well. The present study can be considered significant as it revealed the de-Islamization trend of a Middle Eastern text in the light of the relationship of the unequal languages. The study suggests that paratexts as an empowering platform for translators effectively direct the readers’ perception about the source text and its author. This study hopes to make the translator trainees more cautious in their comments on the original authors’ voices and ideology.
View
Translation and Paratexts: A Study of Animal Farm in Persian
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2020
Translators' ideology permeates all non-technical translations, and the need to study the extent to which ideology plays a vital role in the manipulation of literary texts with a political edge is undoubtedly important. As of Iran, the state ideology has been changed from secular to religious (Islamic) after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. This shift of ideology has influenced society in many facets, including language use. Therefore, individuals were encouraged to produce religious discourse to appear popular and this encouragement includes translation too (Amirdabbaghian 2019). This study aims to describe the ideological impact of the social situation (Islamic Revolution) in Iran on the translation of George Orwell's well-known political novel, Animal Farm (1945) into the Persian language. The research will apply van Dijk's (1998) theory of ideology and Lefevere's (1992) theory of translation, rewriting and manipulation of literary fame, to discuss the paratextual differences in both the source and target texts. The target text which has been chosen for the current research is Hosseini and Nabi Zadeh's (2003) version published by the Doostan publication in Tehran, Iran. Using the paratext of Animal Farm translated into Persian, this article makes an effort to prove that the translators' ideology influenced by their life experience, social status, and occupation as well as the situation and environment in the target language country may be revealed in the set of tactics used in translating the literary work, in the use of language and in the interpretation of the source text author's ideas expressed in the text.
View
Text Screening (Censorship) in Iran: A Historical Perspective
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2011
Censorship has a long history in Iran that has interfered with text production, i.e., original writing as well as translation. This phenomenon seems to have marked the borderline between the government and the ‘enlightened’ intellectuals throughout history in Iran. Different governments have delineated ‘redlines’ for authors and translators and dealt with these constructors of culture based on the definitions they set for those ‘redlines’. This historical research aims at exploring and finding out the features of these ‘redlines’ as well as the mechanisms and rules of text screening (censorship) throughout Iran’s modern era since the importing of the printing press. (PDF) Text Screening (Censorship) in Iran: A Historical Perspective. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350240706_Text_Screening_Censorship_in_Iran_A_Historical_Perspective [accessed Mar 21 2021].
View
UN treaty-based bodies and the Islamic Republic of Iran: Human rights dialogue (1990–2016)
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2018
Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran remained a member of the United Nations and except for three core instruments, i.e. ICERD, ICCPR and ICESCR, that had already been signed during the time of the Shah, the Iranian regime signed two further instruments, i.e. CRC and CRPD, though this time with reservations. Throughout the years, the Iranian delegation has met with relevant UN mechanisms to discuss human rights issues in Iran in relation to each instrument. What has transpired from the dialogues, however, is a change of the use of language and position by the delegation in defence of the regime. The analysis demonstrates resistances, ambiguities and dichotomies in the responses of the delegation to accusations of human rights violations but also an adaptation of a human rights language over the years. The analyses carried out in this paper are based on the summary reports, concluding observations, State reports, the list of issues and their replies, reports of independent Special Procedures and reports of civil society organizations, as pertaining to each convention signed and ratified by Iran and as are available in electronic form.
View
View
Translator’s Paratextual Visibility: The Case Of Iranian Translators From 1906 Until 1926
Conference Paper
  • Jun 2016
The present study is an attempt to find out whether the Iranian translators, whose translations were published in Iran during the twenty years before the fall of Qajar dynasty (1906-1926), were visible or invisible with respect to paratextual elements. To find the answer, 106 translated volumes published during those twenty years were examined in terms of their paratextual elements, which in this study comprised of the translators’ pre/postfaces and the presence of translators’ names versus the presence of authors’ names on title pages. Findings of the study showed that the translators were highly visible, mainly due to their high social and educational status. Moreover, this study revealed that the translator’s visibility could be a multidimensional matter. That is to say, translators are not the only ones who are always given visibility by others or they are not the only ones who seek visibility, but sometimes they become a source of visibility for the agents of translation. Findings of the study led to development of a model that the researcher wishes to term as Network of Visibility, which exhibits two types of connections –non-reflective and reflective – among members who were involved in either production or publication of the translated books – i.e. the translators, the publishers, the patrons and commissioners. The original authors were as well found to be involved in the network of visibility despite their possible unawareness.
View
Ideology: A Very Short Introduction
Book
  • Dec 2003
Ideology: A Very Brief Introduction is an examination of the major theories of ideology and the ways they have enriched our comprehension of ideology. Ideology is one of the most controversial terms in the political vocabulary. It creates both revulsion and inspiration. This VSI examines the reasons for this reaction and explains why ideologies deserve respect as a major form of political thinking. It explores the changing understandings of ideology as a concept and the arguments of the main ideologies. It draws on a range of disciplines in order to show the potency of ideology as a resource at the disposal of societies.
View
Literary Translation in Modern Iran: A sociological study
Book
  • Dec 2014
Literary Translation in Modern Iran: A sociological study is the first comprehensive study of literary translation in modern Iran, covering the period from the late 19th century up to the present day. By drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of culture, this work investigates the people behind the selection, translation, and production of novels from English into Persian. The choice of novels such as Morier's The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World provides insights into who decides upon titles for translation, motivations of translators and publishers, and the context in which such decisions are made.The author suggests that literary translation in Iran is not a straightforward activity. As part of the field of cultural production, literary translation has remained a lively game not only to examine and observe, but also often a challenging one to play. By adopting hide-and-seek strategies and with attention to the dynamic of the field of publishing, Iranian translators and publishers have continued to play the game against all odds.
View
View
View
View
How Paratexts Influence the Reader's Experience of English Translations of La Fontaine's Fables
Article
  • Jan 2017
La Fontaine's Fables were published in three volumes, in 1668, 1678-79 and 1694. They belong to the genre of the moral fable and use animals as allegories to deliver a moral of didactic and philosophical value. In a corpus of 25 translations of La Fontaine's Fables into English, published in Great Britain and the United States, between 1754 and 2014, I examined the micro-and macro-functions of paratextual elements. I focus here on four translations from this corpus. According to Genette (1997), paratexts are elements that frame the content and facilitate the reader's access to it (e.g.: book covers, prefaces). This definition is adapted to the case of translation to better understand how paratexts influence the reader's experience of these translations. By analyzing the paratexts from the perspective of translator's visibility, this paper shows how translator visibility influenced artistic aspects or the informative/academic value of the work, thus influencing the experience of reading the Fables in English.
View