Translation in Literary Discourse: Distribution Approached from Localization / Localization Approached from Distribution in Literary Texts

Abstract

An important aspect of a text concerns its materiality. In more recent terminology used in defining texts, they are considered “objects” or “bearers” of messages. If this is taken seriously, texts must have some physical body that is able to move. This is where the idea of distribution can be presented. In the electronic age, texts move across the world in seconds. Are texts, then, moving in the sense that material things move? That is, do we in fact transfer the form or the meaning? Since the translator’s responsibility is to change the form only while keeping the meaning constant, are we moving the text? This is the question the present paper puts forward and hopes to provide a possible answer to. To this end, the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller was selected for analysis in terms of its adaptability for translation across cultures. The purpose was to see if in literary works localization can be achieved through distribution. The model for analysis was adapted from Anthony Pym (2004), along with the principles of the theory of relevance and the skopos theory. The analysis showed that from a cultural point of view the message is not moved through the text when adapted in translation into Persian.