Iranian translated fanfiction readers: Demographic features and preferences for selection on focus

Document Type : research article

Authors

Department of Applied Linguistics at Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed a shift of attention from translation and translator to the study of readers in the field of Translation Studies. Technological advancement and the emergence of the new generation of Web have empowered online translation users to take the role of translators and create user-generated translations. The present study aims to investigate the demographic characteristics and preferences of the readers in selecting fanfictions translated into Persian and shared on social networks. Using the online qualitative survey method, a questionnaire with 16 open items was prepared. It was sent to 150 translated fanfiction readers in the form of a Google form. Employing thematic analysis, the results showed the readers of translated fanfictions in Iran are mostly high school girls and teenagers who read these stories on Telegram and Wattpad channels. Readers have years of familiarity with stories, mostly through friends or by reading other content on social media platforms. They choose the stories by paying attention to the translated and original titles, fanfiction covers, and most importantly, to the genre, and they ignore the age filter of the stories. Moreover, readers do not pay much attention to the fact that the stories are authored or translated. However, most of them can name a few fanfiction authors or translators, since almost half of them choose the stories by the author’s or translator’s name. The results can be used to improve the translation quality and to familiarize the transition trainees with new scope of research in TS.

Keywords

Main Subjects


Andrews, D., Nonnecke, B., Preece, J. (2003) Electronic survey methodology: A case study in reaching hard to involve Internet Users. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. 16, 2, 185-210. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327590IJHC1602_04
Bijani, S., Khoshsaligheh, M., & Hashemi, M.R. (2014). Categorization of the fiction translation expectancy norms to Iranian undergraduates. Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies, 1(3), 210-221. https://doi.org/10.1080/23307706.2014.956982
Braun, V., & Clarke,V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology.  Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. http://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Campbell, C. (2015). Translation and the reader: A survey of British book group members’ attitudes towards translation. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Edinburgh). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/20948.  
 Guillory, J. (2000). The ethical practice of modernity: The example of reading. In M. Garber, B. Hanssen & R. L. Walkowitz (Eds.), The turn to ethics (pp. 29-46). London, England: Routledge
Hall, A. (2009). Audience personality and the selection of media and media genres. Media Psychology, 7(4), 377-398. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0704_4
Kafi, M. (2022). The selection, promotion, and reception of translated fiction in Wellington (Doctoral dissertation, University of Wellington). https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.18198857
Khoshsaligheh, M., Kafi, M., & Ameri, S. (2020). Fiction translation expectancy norms in Iran: a quantitative study of reception. Translation & Interpreting, 12(1), 74-89. http://doi.org/ 10.12807/ti.112201.2020.a05
Knulst, W., & Van Den Broek, A. (2003). The readership of books in times of de-reading. Poetics, 31(3-4), 213-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-422X(03)00031-7
Kraemer, L. (2020). Judging a book by its cover: Reader responses to paratexts in English and German translations of Chinese banned books. (Doctoral dissertation,  Newcastle University).
http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/4875
Kruger, H. (2013). Child and Adult Readers’ Processing of Foreignised Elements in Translated South African Picturebooks: An Eye-Tracking Study. Target 25 (2): 180–227. https://doi.org/10.1075/target.25.2.03kru
 
Lastowka, G. (2008). User-generated content and virtual worlds. Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, 10(4), 895-916. https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/vol10/iss4/4
Naab, T. K., & Sehl, A. (2017). Studies of user-generated content: A systematic review. Journalism, 18(10), 1256-1273. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916673557
O’Hagan, M. (2009). Evolution of user-generated translation: Fansubs, translation haching and crowdsourcing. The Journal of Internationalization and localization, 1, 94-121. http://org/10.1075/jial.1.04hag.
Orrego-Carmona, D. (2019). A holistic approach to non-professional subtitling from a functional quality perspective. Translation Studies, 12(2), 1-17. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2019.1686414
Pianzola, F. (2021). The impact of digital reading. In Digital social reading. https://doi.org/10.1162/ba67f642.a0d97dee
Pitkäsalo, E. (2018). Images without words – The focus group as a method of examining the reading experience of comics. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies, 17, 231-245. http://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v17i0.466
Tuominen, T. (2012). The art of accidental reading and incidental listening: An empirical study on the viewing of subtitled films. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Tampere). https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-44-9008-8
Turner, A. (2015). Generation Z: Technology and social interest. The Journal of Individual Psychology, 71(2), 103-113. http://doi.org/10.1353/jip.2015.0021
Wang, F., & Humblé, P. (2019). Readers’ perceptions of Anthony Yu’s self-retranslation of the journey to the west. Perspectives, 28(5), 756-776. http://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2019.1594317.
Zhu, Y. (2019). Beyond translation: Chinese online translation communities and cultural ‘newness’ (Doctoral dissertation, Curtin University). http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/78605