Translation Diplomacy Innovative Supposition, New Perspective

پژوهش نامه ایرانی سیاست بین الملل

Article 1, Volume 8, Issue 1, September 2019, Pages 1-22   

Document Type: مقالات

DOI: 10.22067/ijip.v8i1.77062

Abstract

Abstract                                                                                 
Nation-states employ different tools for establishing international and geopolitical relations. Public Diplomacy (PD), as an important tool, plays a decisive role in creating an appropriate national image and correcting misunderstandings and/or negative images of a nation in the minds of “others”. Moreover, it can help advance the cultural and political goals of a nation-state in different parts of the globe, counter international threats, and provide national security. Functioning as a cultural action and an efficient tool, translation can play a significant role in achieving public diplomacy goals. The study presented in this paper defines and elaborates the concept of Translation Diplomacy (TD) as a very influential sub-category of public diplomacy. It evaluates not only the performance of Iranian state organizations and actors involved in developing, dictating, enforcing and implementing the policies of the Iranian TD abroad from 1997 to 2013 but also the consequences of the activities employing mixed-method research. To this end, a questionnaire was developed based on the theoretical concepts derived from the current literature in translation studies and PD and the propositions derived from exclusive interviews done with relevant figures in the field. The questionnaire was validated and then administered among some 50 Iranian cultural diplomats to have their opinion regarding the topic of the study, providing a basis for elaborating the concept of TD thereof. The results of the study indicate that TD can be very helpful in correcting negative perceptions of foreign publics and creating positive images of TD practitioners and their culture.  

Keywords

Translation studies; Public Diplomacy; Translation Diplomacy; cultural turn; Agent

References

References

—— (1998). The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference. London and New York: Routledge.

—— (2008). ‘Public Diplomacy and Soft Power’, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, pp. 94-109.

—— (2010). ‘Translation as Cultural Politics’, in M. Baker (Ed.) Critical Readings in Translation. London and New York: Routledge.

—— (2013). "Contextual Frames and Narratives". In L.van Doorslaer, & Y.Gambier (Eds.), Handbook of Translation Studies (Fourth ed., pp. 105-110)

—— (2014). ‘Translation as Renarration’, in Juliane House (ed.) Translation: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 158-177.

—— (Ed.) (2010). Critical Readings in Translation Studies, London and New York: Routledge.

Armstrong, M. (2009). “Operationalizing Public Diplomcy”, in N. Snow and Ph.M. Taylor (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy. New York: Routledge. 63-71.

Bahrani, M (2005). ‘Mustafa Sabo’e’, in Alikhani et al (Eds.), Political Thought in the Islamic World (2018): From the Fall of the Ottoman Emprie onwards. Jahad Daneshgahi Institute for Humanites, Cultural, and Social Studies.

Baker, M. (2006). Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Bloori, M. (2016). Manipulation in Translated Literature in the Context of Current Developments in Iran. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Allameh Tabatabaie University, Tehran, Iran.

Dehqani Firoozabadi, S.A & Firrozi, A. (2012). “Iranian Public Diplomacy under the Conservatives”. Journal of Foreign Relations, 4(2), p.p. 71-110

DUKĀTE, A. (2007). Manipulation as a specific phenomenon in Translation and Interpreting. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Latvia

Fisher, Walter R. (1985). ‘The Narrative Paradigm: In the Beginning’, Journal of Communication, 35(4): 74–89

Gentzler, E. and M. Tymoczko (Eds) (2002). Translation and Power. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

Hadian, N. & Sa’edi, R (2013). “From the Traditional to the New Public Diplomacy”, Journal of Strategy, 22(68), p.p. 33-61

Haqiqi, R. (2007). Culture and Diplomacy, Tehran: Al-hoda International Publications

Harding, S. A. (2012). "How do I apply narrative theory? Socio-narrative theory in translation studies". Target, 24(2), 286-309.

Hermans, T. (Ed.) (1985a). The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary Translation. Beckenham: Croom Helm.

House, J. (2016). Translation as Communication across Languages and Cultures. London: Routledge.

Khamenei, S. A. (2001). ‘Visiting the Chairman and the members of the Supreme Coumcil of ICRO and the vice presidents of the same organization’, in Rahnemoon: the collection of Iranian Supreme Leader’s addresses on the priciples of acting within the internation arena. Tehran, 2005: Alhoda International Publications

Lefevere, A. (1992 a). Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London and New York: Routledge.

Melissen, J. (Ed.) (2005). The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Mertens, D. M. (2005). Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology: Integrating Diversity with Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods, 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.

Niranjana, T. (1992). Siting Translation: History, Post- structuralism, and the Colonial Context, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Nye, J. (2004). Soft power: The means to success in world politics. New York: Public Affairs.

Pamment, J. (2013). New Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century: A comparative study of policy and practice. London and New York: Routledge

Pym, A. (2014). Exploring Translation Theories. 2nd Edition, London and New York: Routledge.

Rundle, C., & Sturge, K. (Eds.) (2010). Translation under Fascism, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sheikholeslami, M. H., & Noore, H. (2017). Public Diplomay (1st Vol). Tehran: Center for International Research and Education of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Simon, S. (1996). Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission. London and New York: Routledge.

Spivak, G. (1993/2012). ‘The politics of translation’, in L. Venuti (ed.) The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd edition, pp. 312–30.

Van Doorslaer, L. (2012). National and cultural images, in L. van Doorslaer, & Y. Gambier (Eds.), Handbook of Translation Studies. 3, 122.

Venuti, L. (1995/2008). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London and New York: Routledge.