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This paper discusses the prominent position of Arnold's cultural adaptation of the compelling story of Rustam & Sohrab in Shahnameh in the Victorian literary poly-system in England.  According to the poly-system theory as proposed by Even-Zohar, the translated literature can typically have primary /central and/or peripheral/marginal positions in the target culture, depending on whether the target culture is young, weak, or in crisis.  Meantime, the faithful translation of Shahnameh seems to occupy the peripheral position in English translation, but Arnold’s adaptation has typically exceeded  the adaptive effect and obtained the proper position in the literary poly-system of the Victorian.  This paper aims to peruse how Arnold's cultural adaptation of Shahnameh’s passionate story has marked a primary position in the English literary poly- system of the Victorian era. To this aim, Firstly, Arnold's position as an interpreter/adaptor is sketched out. Then, having compared Arnold’s adaptation with the primary sources to which Arnold has typically had access to become familiar with the Persian native story, mention is reasonably made of the marked differences between the two Persian and English literary poetics under the umbrella of poly-system theory as proposed by Even-Zohar. Due to the innovative way (s) Arnold has uniquely adapted, recreated, and re-written the native story with specific regard to the peculiar features of the literary tradition of the Western poetics, it seems that the local story of Shahnameh has  found the prime position in the Western literary poetics of the Victorian.

Keywords: Translation poetics, Adaptation, Re-writing, Re-creation, Poly-system theory

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