A Critical Review on the Book “Time and Narrative” and a Brief Overview of the Term “Récit/Narrative”

Abstract

“Time and Narrative” (3 vol. 1983-1985) of Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) was translated from French to Persian by Mahshid Nonahali, which was published fully by Nashr-e Ney in 2018. Ricoeur's book is a difficult work that requires relatively complete familiarity with various disciplines and branches of humanities such as philosophy, history, literature, narratology, etc. For this reason, less attention is paid here to the third volume and more to the second volume. Regarding translation, it can be claimed that fidelity and accuracy have been respected, but there are many problems, especially in the field of Persian language. Apart from other problems, the translator's prose lacks sufficient dynamic and fluency to convey Ricoeur's concepts; her obsession with translation and syntactic inflexibility has made the book a difficult work. In addition, the fundamental mistakes of the translator about some important terms such as anecdote/narrative, story / history, etc. are discussed, which have caused some of the reader's difficulties in understanding the text. The translator's attention to the heritage of previous translators could reduce some of the translation problems.