Translational Resistance and Constitutional Movement: The Case of One-Word Treatise in Constitutionalist Narrative Communities

Abstract

The relationship between translation and power is realized differently; some subservient translators produce submissive translations that conform to the norms set by power, while others choose to resist and produce resistant translations that bring about socio-political transformations. Concerning Baker’s (in Tymoczko 2010) conceptualization of the link between resistant or activist translations and narrative communities, this study intends to examine One-Word Treatise as a resistant translation in the Naseri period. Hence, it attempts to examine what resistant strategies were employed by the translator and whether there was a link between this translation and the narrative communities such as Farāmoushkhāneh and Jāmeʿ-e Ādamīyat. The analysis of One-Word Treatise as the textual data showed that Mostashar al-Dowleh chose interventionist strategies such as addition, deletion and manipulation to adapt the original text to the Islamic Sharia. Moreover, he could introduce alternative metanarratives such as freedom and law into these narrative communities. It is concluded that One-Word Treatise as an adaptation of the French Declaration of Human Rights was a resistant translation which countered Naser al-Din Shah’s repressive policies and created counter-discourses and paved the way for a political subversion, namely the declaration of constitutionalism under the rule of Mozaffar al-Din Shah despite the bitter fate that befell the translator.