A Comparison Between the Persian Translations of the Children's Story "The Giving Tree": With a Paratranslation Approach

Document Type : research article

Authors

1 Children ̓s and Young Adult Literature, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Persian Literature Department , Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Science Education, Payame Noor University, Hamedan, Iran

Abstract

Cover design, foreword, captions, cutouts, paperwork, footnote,, and all the extensions that make the text a book, are the paratext. Inspired by the concept of paratext, Yuste Frias coined the term paratranslation. Paratranslation is the translation of the paratexts of a book in order to adapt it to the sign sphere of the target language. Paratextual factors are invisible channels for the influence of translators' ideology. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of paratranslational factors on changing the dominant discourse of the original language effect. Due to the large number of translations of "The Giving Tree" by Shell Silverstein, from English to Persian, and the various readings of its commentators, the book has been adapted for the subject of translation studies of this article. In this regard, the present research, by analytical-descriptive method, seeks to adapt how different paratextual factors of each of these translations interact. In the field of children's literature, the interaction of text and image has always been considered by theorists such as Nikolajeva. The novelty of the present study is that it generalizes their intended interactions, from the level of text-image relationship to the level of paratranslational factors. The results show that the interaction of text and paratranslation is of five types: symmetric, complementary, expansive, counterpointing and paradoxical. The cultural distance between the original language text and the translated text, as well as the prominent position of paratranslational factors such as cover design,, etc. in the children's book publishing industry, necessitate research.

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References

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Journal of Foreign Language Research
Volume 12, Issue 3
November 2022
Pages 308-327

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