Encountering Modernization in Authored and Translated Works of Simin Daneshvar in the Second Pahlavi Era
Abstract
Women have always attempted to increase their visibility and voice, especially in modernizing societies with the formation of women’s movements since the nineteenth century (Dezhamkhooy, 2023). This interdisciplinary, non-automated corpus-based study has sought the works of Simin Daneshvar, an Iranian author and translator who lived during the Second Pahlavi era (1941–1979), emphasizing her role as a transauthor. Biographical, educational, and professional data were collected from authoritative sources, including the National Library. Her authored novel Savushun, and translated novel Benal Vatan were analyzed thematically using Farahzad’s (2016) classification to identify how modernization appears in her texts. Standpoint Theory (Smith, 1987, 1990, 2005) was used to explain the association between Daneshvar’s positioning within the women intelligentsia and her translational choices. Results showed that literature was the dominant category in both authored and translated works insisting that she employed literature to increase her social visibility and address modernization. Her works increased voice among silenced and marginalized voices in the patriarchal society which in addition to her interest in literary activities and circles, affected the collective intellectual consciousness among the women. Thematic analysis unveiled encounters between tradition and modernization. Under the Second Pahlavi modernization project, women’s marginalized standpoints were redefined, enabling women intelligentsia, including transauthors, to have contribution to knowledge production. Daneshvar’s transauthorship aimed at challenging and redefining social and literary traditions, improving both her agency and cultural influence in a broader sense.
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