The dynamics of literary translation : ‎a case study from English to Persian

Abstract

This thesis aims to elucidate the translation process by devising a way of ‎retrieving evidence of this process from its output. It further aims to assess the ‎claims made by some scholars concerning the possible existence of Translation ‎Universals. In order to isolate the interaction of texts and contexts, a corpus of ‎American short stories was created, with their translations into Persian published ‎after the 1979 Revolution. Three complementary methodologies gave a rounded ‎picture: (1) Corpus-based Descriptive Translation Studies; (2) The pragmatic and ‎rhetorically-based approach of Thinking Translation devised at St Andrews; and ‎‎(3) The analytical framework mostly established by Halliday in his ‎Systemic ‎Functional Grammar.‎ Approaching the process of translation in the ‎specific order devised in this thesis provided four vantage points to analyse the ‎data in a systematic way from linguistic, discourse, cultural and literary views ‎before reaching what are at once the most personal and most characteristic ‎aspects of a translator’s work. The research begins with a literature review of the ‎field and an account of linguistic constraints and of all Translation Universals ‎hypothesised so far, followed by an extensive analysis of data in two consecutive ‎chapters. With reference to the choices made in this corpus, it is discussed in the ‎Conclusions chapter that most of the Translation Universals so far claimed are ‎not in fact universal. It is the role of the translator which has emerged as the ‎determining factor in producing a translated text, and thus as the key to ‎resolving the issues explored in this thesis. It seems there are no constraints ‎beyond the translator’s reach, and there are no parameters which do not involve ‎the translator, who introduces his or her own choices, or manipulates certain ‎parameters. Only when they have done so, will the translation, as both process ‎and product, be accomplished.‎