Translatorial Preface: A Persuasive Narrative “Reframing” Device

Abstract

The study posited translatorial prefaces, the personal narrative of translators, as a device in reframing the narratives of the source text and trying to persuade the readers to buy into the mediated narratives. The concepts of “persuasion” and “reframing” have been derived from Aristotle and Baker, respectively. One hundred translatorial prefaces written by Iranian translators to the fictions, translated from different languages into Persian during sixty years (1330–1390, 1951–2011CE) in Iran, were hence selected randomly. They were then investigated to figure out how the source texts’ narratives were reframed by translatorial prefaces and what persuasive modes were at work to convince the readers. The findings of the study indicate that translatorial prefaces can reframe the narratives of the source text through different reframing strategies in addressing the why, how, and who of reading. Translators also employ the three persuasive modes of ethos, pathos, and logos to inspire the readers’ trust in their narratives. Translatorial prefaces in other words, are found to be among the rare effective opportunities for translators to constitute their own narratives.