Manipulation As an Ideological Tool in the Persian Translations of Ervand Abrahamian’s The Coup: A Multimodal CDA Approach

The present Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) study aimed to explore the probable ideological manipu- lations exerted in three translations of an English political book entitled The Coup by Ervand Abraha- mian. This comparative qualitative study was conducted based on Farahzad‘s three-dimensional CDA model. The textual, paratextual, and semiotic aspects were critically scrutinized in the text of the three translations (TT1, TT2, and TT3). The findings revealed that TT1 utilized more kinds of manipulations (lexical choices, nominalization, and paratextual level) and less foreignization compared to the other two translations. Considering the amount of lexical choices, addition, and foreignization, TT3 was ranked the second; at the semiotic level, the third translator exercised greater manipulations in comparison to the first one. For TT2, however, only in terms of deletion, passivization, and covering page significant changes could be spotted. TT2‘s stance was apparently similar to that of the original author through adopting more neutral vocabulary items, passive structures, and a less neutral cover picture. As the findings of the present study illustrated, translators can achieve certain ideological goals by employing a myriad of dis- cursive strategies and structures. The findings are discussed in light of the implications of multimodal analysis of multiple translations for political translation theory and practice.