Agency in non-professional manga translation in Iran

Abstract

The present study addresses the phenomenon of online nonprofessional translation of manga in the context of Iran from the perspective of agency. It focuses on the people involved in decision-making in nonprofessional translation production, the non-professional translators motivations for their free immaterial labor as well as the factors that can constrain or increase their willingness or ability to translate manga into Persian. These questions were answered based on the activities of AnimWorld, the largest Iranian community of non-professional translators. The results suggest that non-professional translations differ from professional translations in terms of decision-making processes, motivations of the individuals involved as well as the contexts where they practice.