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The Role of the Translator in Shaping the Canon: Gender and Contemporary Persian Short Story Anthologies, 1980 to 2020
Abstract
Considering the recent dominance of women fiction writers in Iran, this chapter investigates whether women’s writing has filtered its way into modern translated short story anthologies to the degree expected. It addresses the role of gender in the canonization process, and offers some preliminary analysis of the representation of women writers in short story anthologies, both in English and in Persian, from 1980 to the present. In conducting this analysis, the chapter looks to the contemporary theories on canonization in English literature, especially the feminist critic Joanna Russ. Russ noted in her investigation of anthologies of English poetry that 11% seems to be the preferred percentage for the representation of women in canon. My paper suggests that a new market for anthologizing women has emerged – one that tends to be separate from so-called ‘mainstream’ (that is, largely male) writing – at least partly in response to increasing demands for representation and diversity by publishers. This phenomenon can be seen as roughly analogous to what is occurring with other ‘hyphenated’ groups, including, for example, Kurdish writing in contemporary Iran, or diaspora literature in Persian. As such, it asks scholars and translators to re-evaluate our assumptions underlying the canonization process of Persian literature and not to assume the perceived meritocracy of the process is immune from social forces. It encourages translators to carefully evaluate their role in shaping the works of the current moment and ensuring which ones will be remembered in the future.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries