Analysis of the Translator’s Use of Plurality to Overcome Culture Industry in Translation of Poems: The Case of Elahi’s Translation of T. S. Eliot’s Ash-Wednesday into Farsi

Abstract

Capitalism benefits from the uniformed society by suppressing individuals 'consciousness through commodifying them. Being deceived by the system, individuals get stuck in the culture industry (the mass production of cultural things in a supply-driven economy turning to a set of standardized and predictable reaction of individuals). Assuming translation of poetry as an artistic creation, that is against uniformity by nature by not following a set of prescriptive principles, this study aimed to analyze the translator's use of plurality to overcome culture industry. To this end, creating plurality in Bijan Elahi's translation of T.S. Eliot's Ash-Wednesday on the basis of six features of Hassan's catena was analyzed and traced in Elahi's translation. Findings show that Elahi's translation satisfied all the six items in Hassan's list which resulted in overcoming the culture industry. The findings of this study has implications for teaching poetry translation.