Gender-Specific Charactonyms in Persian Translation of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim's Progress, Part ۲

The present research aimed to investigate gender-specific charactonyms in the Persian Translation of John Bunyan’s (۱۶۸۴) The Pilgrim's Progress, Part ۲. It also aimed to reveal whether the TL preferred equivalents for the SL gender-specific charactonyms could convey the meanings and the characteristics of the names in the Persian translation. The material was borrowed from the book Seir-o Solouk-i Za’ir, Bakhshe Dovom (‘سیر و سلوک زائر، بخش دوم’) translated by Golnaz Hamedi in ۲۰۰۲ (۱۳۸۱), and also its French and Arabic translations. Thus, SL gender-specific charactonyms were compared with TL equivalents in Evelyn Hatch’s (۱۹۹۲) macro-level analysis. According to Hatch (۱۹۹۲), characters, as one of the main elements of a story, play a significant role and affect the macrostructure of the story. The results showed that the Persian equivalents used by Hamedi (۲۰۰۲) ranged from transparent to problematic ones. Hamedi (۲۰۰۲) less preserved the meanings of the names and sometimes replaced the female charactonyms with already-used male charactonyms that affected the novel due to the change of the characteristics and additional information the charactonyms bear in their inner forms.