Representation of Otherness in Persian Translations of English Travelogues: A Case Study of Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia by Mary Lady Sheil

Abstract

The paper at hand investigates the relationship of translation and otherness. It studies the role of the translator's ideology in representing the orientalist identity (the concept of other) given to Persians by European travelers. One of the most influential English travelogues written about Iran during Naser al-Din Shah Qajar era (1848–1896) by Mary Sheil—the wife of Justine Colonel Sheil—is thus employed. First, the study aims to see whether self/other binary opposition of orientalist identity is revealed in the travelogue the way Edward Said (1978) states. Second, the Persian translation is analyzed to understand how the translator represents the orientalist identity (if any) ascribed to Persians in the ST. To that end, Jensen's (2009) conceptualization of embracement and resistance is used. The collected ST units are classified into 4 thematic categories including: Persian Peoples, Ameer Kabeer, Persian Women and Religious Culture. It was found that the image of ST other (the way Said (1978) describes it) had been most resisted in Religious Culture and Ameer Kabeer, while Persian Women and Persian Peoples were mostly embraced.