Translation courses have been taught in Iranian universities for several decades. The undergraduate curriculum of translation, English language, and literature offers a course titled “Translation of Literary Texts.” Despite this, translation researchers have paid less attention to literary translation as a separate genre and field of translation. Hence, it is necessary to understand the views of the academic stakeholders, such as teachers and students of literary translation, about the approach to teaching literary translation. Thus, the present research aims to examine the views of teachers and learners of literary translation in Iran’s high-ranking universities about the approach to teaching literary translation in the academic setting to clarify the degree of compatibility of this approach with the requirements of social constructivism in translation education. For this purpose, The views of 39 teachers and 74 learners of literary translation were collected through semi-structured interviews, and the findings were analyzed using thematic analysis. The approach to teaching literary translation in terms of topics, course materials, teaching procedure, and teaching tools was described and categorized. The research’s findings revealed that the linguistic, literary, and translation topics were the most frequently discussed topics in the literary translation classes, and less attention was paid to the topics related to the needs of the literary translation market. Although the literary translation teaching approach in Iranian universities is interactive and collaborative, the scaffolding and strong role of the teacher, as well as the lack of attention to the conditions and needs of the translation market, are contrary to the requirements of social constructivism in translation education.

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