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Mahdi Vahedikia

Mahdi Vahedikia

Academic rank: Assistant Professor
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8975-1828
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 55189615700
HIndex:
Faculty: Literature and Languages
Address: Arak University
Phone:

Research

Title
Translational Façade, Authorial Text: Translational Artifice in James Morier’s The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
Pseudotranslation, Epitext, Peritext, Textual-Linguistic Features, Translationality, Translationese, Disguise Mechanism
Year
2023
Journal Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Translation Studies
DOI
Researchers Mahdi Vahedikia

Abstract

The present study aims at providing an account of the translational features of a pseudotranslational work. The case for the study is The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan by James Justinian Morier, a book presented as the translation of a manuscript presumably written by a Persian narrator, Hajji Baba. Morier’s book has ever since won a wide readership among the English as a translated text although many critics have attested to its authorial status. Following library research, this study gauged the pseudotranslationality of the book using its paratextual elements and then analyzed the text regarding its textual-linguistic makeup to highlight the elements which helped the fictitious translator to disguise the book as a translation in the English culture. The inquiry shows how Morier benefited some of the common paratextual and textual ploys in pseudotranslating, noticeable in such processes in other literary contexts as well, to manipulate his own authored book and cover it with a veil of translation. The study can help gain a broader picture of techniques used in pseudotranslating and accordingly prevalent norms of translation.