Manipulation of Ideology in Translation of Political Texts: A Criti-cal Discourse Analysis Perspective

As a culture-based phenomenon which involves both linguistic and social aspects, translation has been investigated from various perspectives. The present Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)-based study is an attempt to probe into the manipulation of ideologies in translations of political texts. A CDA approach, based on Fairclough (1989), Van Dijk (2004) and Farahzad (2007), was adopted to conduct this research. Three English political books alongside their corresponding translations in Persian were critically analyzed both at micro and macro levels. At micro-level, lexical features based on Van Dijk's model (2004) and grammatical features based on Fairclough's (1989) framework were analyzed. This was followed by the analysis of macro-features (based on Farahzad, 2007) such as notes, prefaces, and footnotes in the translated books for the purpose of revealing the translation network's diverse world-views and ideologies. The results show that translators make use of certain grammatical and lexical strategies for the sake of ideological ploy, i.e. the basic strategy of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation. That is, all the lexical and grammatical deviations used by the Persian translators were in the employment of self (i.e., Iranian) interests. Also the analysis of macro-features revealed the translators’ ideological trends and judgments toward the source texts. More specifically, in the footnotes, the translators manifested negative attitudes towards the authors of the original texts by pinpointing their mistakes and false information about Iranian affairs as well as their hostility towards Iran. The findings are interpreted to have implications for syllabus designers as well as translation students and teachers.