Echoes of Resistance: Committed Translation in the Second Pahlavi Era

Authors

  • Khadijeh Safaee 📧 Ph.D. Candidate of Translation Studies, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran;
  • Dr. Mir Saeed Mousavi Associate Professor, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6495-3466

Abstract

Pre-revolution Iran witnessed the efforts of committed writers and translators who sought to raise public awareness and warn against the consequences of imperialistic interventions of foreign countries. The study of the intention behind the translators’ selection of works for translation as well as their textual (paratextual and lexicogrammatical) choices is a tool for proving that the translations were not a neutral, random process, but a systematic, purposeful one. The present study was an attempt to identify the translations done into Persian Language in the Pahlavi era which can be categorized under committed translation label. These works were identified based on Talattof’s (1996) description of committed literature. Farahzad’s (2012) three-dimensional model was applied to link the linguistic level to the sociopolitical level and to trace intertextuality among these works. Moreover, two Persian translations of the English novel Cry the Beloved Country were studied and analyzed as a sample both in terms of micro level and macro level of the text encompassing the translators’ background, prefaces and textual choices. These choices were finally linked to the then sociopolitical milieu. For this purpose, Farahzad’s CDA model of Translation Criticism (2009) was adopted as the model of analysis. The results of this study indicated that around %17 of the translations carried out in this period could be categorized as committed translation.

Author Biographies

Khadijeh Safaee, Ph.D. Candidate of Translation Studies, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran;

Khadijeh Safaee is a Ph.D. Candidate of Translation Studies at Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. She is a certified translator to the Judiciary in Tehran and she has been a lecturer in the field of Translation at Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University. She has translated two books including Michele Obama's "Becoming". She has presented several papers in International and National Scientific Conferences. Her research interests are Literary Translation, Transaltion Teaching, Narrative Theory, and Cultural Studies.
Email: khadije.safaee@gmail.com

Dr. Mir Saeed Mousavi, Associate Professor, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran;

Dr. Mir Saeed Mousavi Razavi is an Associate Professor of Translation Studies at Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, ۵Iran. He did a PhD in Translation Studies at Allameh Tabataba’i University in 2015. He has taught Graduate Courses and has supervised several Master's and Doctoral Dissertations on Translation. He has authored and translated many books in the field of Translation Studies. He is the author of many papers published in International and National Journals and conferences. His research interests are Consecutive Interpretation, Translation Technology and Sociocultural Issues in Translation.
Email: s.mousavi.r @atu.ac.ir

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Published

2025-06-10

How to Cite

Safaee, K., & Mousavi Razavi, M. S. (2025). Echoes of Resistance: Committed Translation in the Second Pahlavi Era. Iranian Journal of Translation Studies, 23(89). Retrieved from https://journal.translationstudies.ir/ts/article/view/1240

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 89 (2025): Iranian Journal of Translation Studies

Section

Academic Research Paper

DOR

https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.17350212.1404.23.1.8.8

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Copyright Licensee: Iranian Journal of Translation Studies. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0 license).

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