Sociology of the Translated Plays in Qajar Era: Retrospection on the Sociological Conditions and Their Effects on Translators' Illosio

مطالعات زبان و ترجمه

Article 3, Volume 49, Issue 4, February 2017, Pages 15-34   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/lts.v49i4.33470

Authors

Seyyed Mohammad Reza Hashemi; Fatemeh Heidari^* ; Yalda Rezaee Danesh

Department of English, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

 
1. Introduction
This article is an investigation to answer why some plays have been translated in Qajar era. The investigation of the themes and the translators' motivations in these plays links translation studies with sociology. To Chesterman (2009), sociologically investigating the translator's motivations can contribute to a better understanding of translators' opinions and personal drives; therefore one can find the reflection of these aspects in their choice of translated plays. From a sociological point of view, the socio-political conditions of the society have their impact on the translators' choice. The translator's habitus that is proposed by Bourdieu (as cited in Gouanvic, 2010) is deemed as the main factor in a social practice. Therefore, their motivations are probed in this article.
To find the translators' illosio's of the selection of some plays for translation, written by well-known western authors, the socio-political condition of the country in Qajar era is probed to answer the three following questions:
1. What was the cultural, social, and political atmosphere like in Qajar era?
2. What were the translated plays in that era that were translated for criticizing the social conditions?
3. What was the aim of selecting those plays?
2. Theoretical Framework
Translation has an interdisciplinary nature (Hatim & Munday, 2004) that has ties with many other majors like sociology. These links provide the chance to probe a translated text on various aspects. Sociology gives a good framework to translation studies. According to Gouanvich (2010) theory that is part of Bourdieu's theory, translation is a cultural good that involves many actors and actions;
in other words, one can see political, social, and cultural dimensions in it as well.
This article applies Bourdieu's (as cited in Gouanvich, 2010) theory as its framework to find the contributing factors in the selection of some plays for translation in Qajar era. His theory is one of the main patterns in sociology that puts a lot of emphasis on the translator's sociology. There are three concepts in his model: field, habitus, and illosio. To wolf (2007), field is the arena of competing forces, the forces which are trying to get to the highest state of a realm. Habitus refers to translators' habits; these habits form the environment and are formed by the environment. They are constructed by the norms of the society and at the same time they are constructing the society. Illosio is the internal ideas and motivations of the translators. The illosio may have its roots in translators' society and his social conditions too.
3. Method
To address the research questions that are generally finding some plays with criticizing themes about the cultural, social, and political conditions of the society, the library sources were probed. A corpus of 20 plays which were translated in Qajar era were found and collected to be scrutinized for further details.
4. Results & Discussion
A look at the found details in the study clarifies that the social factors and the local conditions of the country contributed to the translators' choices for translation. Social, political, and cultural factors, among many others, had motivated the informed translators to respond well to the social conditions. They had actually decided to put an end to the bad conditions and improve the social status, the conditions in which law, welfare, health, and security were obviously neglected.
People were not aware of their own rights; they were not allowed to have a clear line of thought, and they were not deprived of freedom. They needed a movement to free themselves. This movement started with the translation of and compiling valuable books that gave the thought values.
Looking at translation from this point, one comes to see that translation has in fact an independent identity which is a function of time, circumstances, and the translator choices of texts. To Farahzad (2003, p. 33), "translator choices have their roots in his ideology, point of views, opinions, and prejudice which are all related to the social conditions in which he has lived or lives".
5. Conclusions & Suggestion
Considering all the found facts in this article, one can see the prominent status of translation in propagating a sense of critical thinking and increasing the socio-political awareness among people. Analytical investigations of the critical articles in Qajar era show that the authors of these writings had been translators or at least fluent in a foreign language. Further critical translations by other translators or even ordinary people had been affected by these works. These translations have been ways to inform people about the changes in the country, the reasons of not having any social growth, and advancements; and they led to a break from traditional customs and opinions.

Keywords

Translation Sociology; Illosio; Translator; Bourdieu's Theory; Social Conditions

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