Intrasystemic Function of Translated Political Works in Iranian Society

Abstract

The present paper analyzes the political purposes behind translating political works into Persian under the Reformist administration in Iran in order to investigate the social function of translation. First, the translated political books about international relations that had been initially published from 2001 until the end of the Reformist administration (2005/08/03) were retrieved from a bibliographic database. They were then examined paratextually in terms of the cover blurbs, translators’ prefaces, publishers’ notes, and notes by other agents. In paratextual examinations, some references to the political purposes behind translating the works were found. Out of 74 identified translations, 10 volumes had been translated with political purposes. The paratextual evidence about the political purposes was provided case-by-case. Finally, the social function of translation within the Iranian society during the period was discussed based on Luhmann’s social systems theory as applied to translation studies by Tyulenev (2012a).