Abstract
How cross-cultural communications terminate in imperfect understanding can arguably be rendered by critical awareness about culturally differentiating conceptions in the interacting communities. This study aims to shed light on how an awakening message of a Western literary work can achieve a functional realization in an Eastern society via domestication of the cultural mnemonics. To this end, the present paper explored how Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House was introduced to Persian culture as a movie entitled Sara by Dariush Mehrjui mediated by apprehending the intended function of the original work and cultural capital of the target community. Meticulous comparative analysis of A Doll's House and Sara yielded that the given successful 'transmission' was materialized through two levels of macro contextual and micro cultural domestications. Generic and thematic transformations at the former level and various strata of cultural turns at the latter have conceivably lent verisimilitude to Sara and its proximity to the cultural schema of Iranian audience, through which Nora in Norway could be 'translated' to Sara in Iran to enlighten both audience. It is hoped the arguments of this research can offer some critical points for both proponents and opponents of the debates on cultural turn in generic translation. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s2p218
Highlights
Since its first performance in 1879, A Doll's House has received a groundbreaking attention, highly valued by literary scholars for being among the first generation of "truly realistic plays in world drama" (Törnqvist, 1995, p. 1) and initiating a "break with idealistic esthetics" (Walker, 2014, p. 136)
Sara owes its success and acceptability in Iranian society, the present study argues, to its natural domestication that resulted in the apprehension of the work as "Iranian self" than "the other Norwegian"
The present study aimed to provide a case study of adaptation based on Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House adapted into an Iranian movie by one of the most famous directors in the contemporary Iranian cinema
Summary
Since its first performance in 1879, A Doll's House has received a groundbreaking attention, highly valued by literary scholars for being among the first generation of "truly realistic plays in world drama" (Törnqvist, 1995, p. 1) and initiating a "break with idealistic esthetics" (Walker, 2014, p. 136). The play is a realistic observation of the status of women in the 19th century family life of the time with respect to their deprived right of individuality, independence and, after all, selfrealization. Not all of these adaptations as either play or film were successful; one of the unsuccessful adaptations belonged to the British playwrights Arthur Jones and Henry Herman in 1884. They gave the original text a radical change for what they called "British theatrical taste" 23) in which they depicted a happy-ending Törnqvist rightly argues this naïve adaptation created a parodic effect, and, by no means, could convey the message
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