زادمهر ترابی

Translating book titles requires fidelity to the source text and cultural adaptation. Franklin Publishing House (FPH), active in Iran between 1954 and 1976, played a key role in shaping translation norms. This study investigates the translation strategies applied to book titles published by FPH during this period, using a microhistorical approach. A corpus of 790 translated titles from diverse genres was compiled through archival research in the Princeton University Library, the Library of Congress, the National Library of Iran, and other Iranian repositories. Titles were classified by genre and analyzed according to Yin’s (2009) framework, which distinguishes source-oriented strategies (literal translation, transliteration, and explication) from target-oriented strategies (adaptation, new title). Frequencies and percentages were calculated for each category. Literal translation was the most frequent strategy, while explication was the least common. Genre-specific patterns revealed a predominance of literal translation across most categories, particularly in historical and pure science titles. FPH’s predominant use of literal translation reflects its commitment to preserving source-text identity, a practice that aligned with its Cold War cultural diplomacy objectives and influenced translation norms within Iran’s publishing industry.

A couple of decades before 9/11, after the collapse of USSR, Islam started to be culturally represented as the major “Other” in the West. 9/11 attacks accelerated the movement with the “culture talk” project positioning Islam as the backward culture against which the West and secularism are portrayed as the epitome of progressive liberal civilization/culture. Muslims, however, wrote back to the project. Literature, especially fiction, was found an appropriate media through which Muslims’ voice could be expressed. Robin Yassin Kassab’s The Road from Damascus is a true writing back attempt in order to respond to the hegemonic “othering” of Islam in the West. The narrative actualizes the purpose upending the constructed bifurcation of “the West” versus “Islam”. Being approached from a new perspective, both terms/signs are deconstructed in the novel so that the center/periphery opposition is reversed. In this new structure each term/sign is given new significances challenging the mainstream “imagined identities” of Muslims in the West.