Authorial Style in English-Persian Literary Translation: Focusing on Key Phrase Allusions

Literary translation has always been the subject of discussion from a multitude of perspectives. One of the most controversial aspects of literary translation is the translator’s treatment of the authorial style. One of the elements of authorial style comprises rhetorical figures, from among which key-phrase allusions seem to pose considerable challenges for literary translators. The present study was conducted to find answers to two questions: 1- Do English-Persian literary translators have a tendency to preserve the authorial style as regards allusion as a stylistic feature; and 2- Do English-Persian literary translators have a tendency to adopt a unified approach in the translation of allusions? A bottom-up analytical model was developed for this study and used to explore the translator’s treatment of key-phrase allusions as a feature of authorial style in the Persian translations of four classic novels by Conrad, Faulkner, Joyce and Golding. The results showed that the English-Persian literary translators examined in this study do not have a tendency to adopt the author-focused approach and to preserve the authorial style as regards the stylistic feature of allusion; however, they mostly showed a tendency towards adopting a unified translation approach, here called “audience-focusedness” in their treatment of the allusions.