Personality Description of Iranian Pre-eminent Literary Translators: Didactic Implications

This study aims to present a personality description of a group of select pre-eminent Iranian literary translators. Grounded theory method was used to generate a personality description of the group. The study benefited from both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data included individual, semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 12 celebrated Iranian literary translators. The secondary sources of data included 30 extended interviews with 23 celebrated Iranian literary translators and four books, including the autobiography of one translator and memories of three others. The qualitative data collected through the interviews were codified and analyzed using open, axial and selective coding procedures of grounded theory method. A constant comparative approach was used until saturation of the categories appeared. The results indicate that, overall, five themes can be taken into consideration to serve as a personality description of Iranian literary translators. The themes include Introversion, Emotionality, Perseverance, Self-confidence and Disorganization. The results are discussed with regards to their didactic implication in translation education.