Translation and Cultural Regeneration

This round table examines the possibilities opened up by examining Iranian history as well as textual and other forms of cultural production under the rubric of “modernity.” My contribution to the roundtable is twofold. First, I’d like to generate a conversation on the dynamics of transposition of categories of European historiography such as “modernity” onto the material of Iranian history. Is it possible to discern a “form” within the textual and cultural productions of modern Iran that recalls that which has been elaborated in other contexts as “modernity”? Secondly, I would like to discuss the role of translation in formation of the textuality of Iranian literary modernity. I will theoretically elaborate the concept of “translation,” and offer a number of examples of how translation enters Iranian political and textual cultures and engenders new forms.