Reading Sadegh Hedayat in Translation

What is it about?

Do global texts acquire a new identity when they are translated into a different language? Are they read and understood differently? Do critical introductions, notations, and other supplementary textual materials change our perception, and if so, in what ways? By comparing the English and French translations of Sadegh Hedayat's Iranian novel _The Blind Owl_, this paper explores these and other issues of global and postcolonial literature and translation.

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Why is it important?

This paper focuses on what has been called the most important work of modern Iranian literature and "a Western novel," but has received little attention in the West, and takes it as a launching pad to explore current issues in global and postcolonial literature (e.g., how we define "global" and "literature," considering benefits/limitations of such definitions; how we read global texts on their own merit and not just as reflections of ourselves, as well as what is lost/gained in either case).