A Critical Discourse Analysis of Political Implications in Three Persian Translations of “Animal Farm”

This study draws on a comparative framework to evaluate the translation of political implications in three Persian translations of the novellaAnimal Farm (by George Orwell), using Fairclough’scritical discourse analysis (CDA) model. The study regards political implications and ideologies as a mode of background knowledge shared by writers and audiences in the source language. Fairclough’s model involves three qualitative stages (interpretation, explanation, reproduction) and takes into account ideological stances. Political allusions in novels, if not sufficiently translated, could downgrade the implicit purposes and even the meaningfulness of the text. Given this significant function, the study specifically focuses on linguistic items that play an extra-textual role in meaning formation and the way they are translated into Persian. Hidden ideologies may appear in the form of assumptions, presuppositions, interactional history, or cultural references. This study emphasizes that translators must not take at face value what Fairclough calls “members resources” and must examine their choices against other sources.