censorship

Censorship has a long history in Iran that has interfered with text production, i.e., original writing as well as translation. This phenomenon seems to have marked the borderline between the government and the ‘enlightened’ intellectuals throughout history in Iran. Different governments have delineated ‘redlines’ for authors and translators and dealt with these constructors of culture based on the definitions they set for those ‘redlines’. This historical research aims at exploring and finding out features of these ‘redlines’ as well as the mechanisms and rules of text screening (censorship) throughout Iran’s modern era since the importing of the printing press.

Contesting Cyberspace in China: Online Expression and Authoritarian Resilience by Rongbin Han. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018. 336pp., $30.00 (p/b), ISBN 978-0231184755

Globally, Internet censorship is on the rise and Iran has been portrayed as one of the most critical cases. So far, however, no studies have investigated the issue from an inside look. To fill this literature gap, the present paper aims to provide an overview of Internet censorship in Iran, by assessing the Iranian perspective on Internet freedom, different aspects of the subject, as well as the domestic and foreign types of limitations clients face today. This study has shown that Iran’s current filtering policy is a lenient one pursuing Internet development and simultaneously providing protection against potential threats. The Iranian case also includes some global issues such as censorship imposed due to the U.S. sanctions. Specifically, the findings of this study revealed that the range and extent of restrictions imposed on the Iranians’ access to mobile applications by the U.S. are significantly more than those placed by the Iranian filtering regime.

The novel Les Miserables (Hugo, 1985) is one of the most universally translated works, and there are a number of adaptions in several languages. One recent adaption is the Persian musical play performed in Iran. In this performance, culture-specific items (CSIs) were translated differently since visual and aural elements were added to the stage. The present study aims to investigate translation strategies used in the above adaptation to indicate what translation solutions are possible when the medium changes. After watching the ninety-minute recorded play in VOD format, culture-specific items were selected purposively corresponding to those in the novel. Subsequently, they were analyzed based on Newmark's model (1988). The findings showed that the most frequent translation strategies applied were adaptation, followed by communicative translation, and literal translation. Compared with the original performance, some scenes were deleted from the recorded play. Hence, there was no exact one-to-one correspondence with the original text of the book. While instances of censorship contributed to some of these omissions, probably one reason for the issue is the publishing regulations administered in Iran for VOD formats of the plays. These results suggest that while target language-oriented strategies dominated the entire translation approach, the translator of the play tried to familiarize the audience with French culture through literal translations and with the help of visual and aural aids. Since the audience were presented with pictures and songs, it was easier for them to locate themselves in the era of the French Revolution and French customs.