The Role of Translation of New Works in the Formation of Modernism Discourse

Abstract

This issue was one of the most effective ways of transferringthe European modernity and modernization to the mind, language and mentality of the Iranians, in a way that the social role of the new writings in transferring modern concepts to Iraniansis undeniable. This modernism, which was the result of translation of European historical and academic sources, did not occur easily in Iran in comparison with other countries like Ottoman Empire and Egypt. It faced two main problems: on the one hand, the unintentional or compulsory integration with Iranian traditional and native ideological discourse led to misunderstanding of modern concepts. On the other hand, Iran was geographically far awayfrom Europe, so it had to make connections with the civilized Europe through countries like Russia and Ottoman Empire. These linking countries hindered the direct relation of Iran with modernism. Given that, in different phases, the translation of original works to Persian happened less. In this paper, through adopting discourse analysis, we study the manifestation of modern texts in the Iranian society and the trend of confrontation and integration of Iranian traditional mindset with modern mindset in the translated works. Thus, in this research methodology and modelof analysis, we do not focus on “translated works” but talk “about translation” and critique it