The Role of Translation in the Persian Literary Renaissance and Contemporary Persian Literature

Abstract

According to Even-Zohar (1990), literary works are part of a complex system of interrelated social, cultural, historical, and literary elements. This principle forms the basis of polysystem theory and is also true about the translated literature. Even-Zohar believes that the translated literature often occupies a peripheral position in the polysystem; however, there are three situations in which translated literature maintains a primary position: when a literature is "young," in the process of being established; (b) when a literature is either "peripheral" (within a large group of correlated literatures) or "weak," or both; and (c) when there are turning points, crises, or literary vacuums in a literature. This paper is an attempt to study the role of translation in the Persian literary renaissance and contemporary Persian literature and use polysystem theory to uncover the reasons why the translated literature managed to occupy a primary position in the Persian literary polysystem.