Resistance in Translations Published as White-Cover Books

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to find out how the activist Persian translations published illegally as White-Cover books were resistant to the target culture. The study was based on Baker’s (2006) argument about where to look for the activist translators’ political work, i.e., the text selection and framing methods, including paratexts, timing of release, and place of release. For the study of the paratexts, Pellatt’s (2013) typology was adapted to cover all the paratextual elements included in the corpus. The study showed that resistance was manifest in all the areas examined, but in different forms. Resistance to censorship was more evident in the text selection and the non-verbal paratexts, whereas resistance to the dominant ideologies and the state was more visible in the verbal paratexts, especially in the prefatorial materials as well as the inclusion or exclusion of the names of the translators.