The Translator Through the Lens of Paratext:

A Thematic Analysis of the Paratexts of Literary Works Translated Into Persian During the Second Pahlavi Period

Abstract

Paratext serves as an intermediary layer between a text and its readers and is often shaped by the translator's intervention. As such, it provides a valuable site for identifying cultural, social, and political concerns. Paratextual elements may influence the processes of textual recreation, interpretation, and meaning transfer, and their analysis offers a clearer understanding of the translator's approach and position within the literary system. This study examines the themes embedded in the paratexts of literary works translated into Persian during the Pahlavi period (1925 to 1979). It seeks to identify translators' approaches, perspectives, and views on translation, translatorship, and publishing. We examined 198 translated literary books published during the study period. Paratextual materials from 59 books, including bibliographic information, translators' footnotes, and prefaces, were collected and analyzed, yielding a corpus of 467 data units, 373 of which concerned translation. All of these materials belonged to the Second Pahlavi period (1941 to 1979). Thematic coding identified eight major themes, including ‘explaining the translator's own translation strategies and procedures’, ‘publishing and printing considerations’, and ‘explaining the objectives, necessity, and significance of translation as well as readers' needs’, together with 20 primary subthemes and four secondary subthemes. The findings indicate that translators were primarily concerned with explaining, justifying, and defending their own translation strategies, either in support of or in opposition to prevailing translation practices. In addition, paratext served as a platform for establishing the cultural, literary, and scholarly legitimacy of both the source text and its translation, while also enabling translators to express dissenting views.