Translation Agents and Networks: A Case Study of the Persian Translations of Bakhtiar Ali’s Novels in Iran

The current study examines the agency of translators and publishers in the Persian translations of Ali’s Kurdish novels within the Iranian literary field, highlighting how decisions, motivations, and contextual constraints interact. The study adopts a qualitative case study approach, focusing exclusively on Bakhtiar Ali’s novels translated directly from Kurdish into Persian between ۱۹۹۷ and ۲۰۲۵. It draws on in-depth semi-structured interviews with seven translators and six publishers, conducted until theoretical saturation was reached, alongside archival research, publication histories, and textual and paratextual analysis to trace patterns of decision-making and collaboration. The analysis is informed by Haddadian-Moghaddam’s tri-tier model of agency comprising decision, motivation, and context in tandem with Actor–Network Theory (ANT) and Bourdieu’s concept of capital. The findings reveal that agency is unevenly distributed: early translations were driven primarily by translators’ intellectual and cultural motivations, whereas later translations reflect publishers’ increasing control, shaped by symbolic capital, market considerations, and the growing recognition of Kurdish literature. Translators’ agency is further constrained by political and institutional factors, including censorship, time, and language hierarchies, yet facilitated by enabling mechanisms such as literary awards, paratextual visibility, and the emergence of celebrity translators.

کلیدواژه ها:

Actor-Network Theory (ANT) ، Pierre Bourdieu ، capital ، Field ، Kurdish Translation Studies ، Translator Agency