Ph.D. Theses

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Translators' formative agency in the periodical Hawar (1932-1943) : the making of a Kurdish cultural identity
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2022., 2022) Çelik, Dibar.; Demirkol, Şule.
The present study explores the key role translations in Hawar played in the formation of a Kurdish cultural identity through analysis of translations and translators' agency, adopting the non-essentialist concept of "cultural identity" proposed by Stuart Hall (1990, p. 225) and drawing on the framework suggested by Matthew Philpotts (2012; 2013) and Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar (2014; 2019), as well as on the approach adopted by Michael Cronin (1995; 1998; 2006), and Albert Branchadell (2005; 2011) in terms of minority languages and translation. In this context, particularly focusing on the agency of Celadet Alî Bedirxan, the chief editor, I consider him a "free agent” engaged in "culture planning" (Even-Zohar, 2010, pp. 98-99). This research has shown that C. Bedirxan, addressing both Kurdish and western readerships in Hawar, aimed to form a multilayered Kurdish cultural identity encompassing a dialogic relationship between Kurdish and western cultures, tolerance for all faiths- Islam, Ezidism and Zoroastrianism - and the development of the Kurdish language and literature alongside the introduction of the Roman alphabet to all Kurdish dialects, mainly Kurmanji, Sorani and Zazaki. Focusing on the translators and their translations in the periodical Hawar, this study aims to show that it is also possible to probe the relationship between translation studies and periodical studies from the perspective of a minority language such as Kurdish and thus to illustrate the novel viewpoints it can bring for translation studies and theory.
Queer translation of non-literary texts as activism in Turkey
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2022., 2022) Duraner Dikmen, Jasmin Esin.; Cengiz, Ayşenaz.; Işıklar Koçak, Müge.
This dissertation explores the role of translation and translators in queer scholarship and activism in Turkey through analysis of the translated non-literary queer texts, terminological discussions in Kaos GL magazine (1994-2022), and the first-hand accounts of the activist translators from Kaos GL and Kaos Q+ academic journal (2014-2022). In the early 1990s, non-literary texts, particularly translations, served as a tool to bring people with non-normative sexualities together, motivate them for social change, transfer and produce knowledge on queer activism and politics. In the 2000s, translation of queer texts flourished, and this trend has been followed by several publishing houses, special issues of journals, and academia. However, this research has revealed that in this massive knowledge transfer, production, and circulation, the role of translation and translators is completely ignored not only in the activist context but also in queer politics. In this scope, the present study intends to fill the lacuna in the literature converging translation, queer and activism in the Turkish context. Critically analyzing the interventions in translations performed by the activist translators and the terminological and theoretical discussions, this dissertation asserts that the activist translators resist and subvert the hegemony of the public narrative oppressing, marginalizing, and discriminating people with nonnormative sexualities by constructing a counter-narrative. This dissertation also manifests the agency of translation in the formation of a non- literary queer literature in Turkish, which thereby led to the emergence of a conceptual narrative: Queer in academia.
Translation and reception of feminist speculative fiction in Turkey: a multiple- foregrounding analysis
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Özçelik, Nil.; Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.; Von Flotow-Evans, Luise.
This thesis studies a corpus of three works of feminist speculative fiction (Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood, Woman on the Edge of Time -Marge Piercy, Female Man - Joanna Russ) that distinguish themselves from traditional sci-fi books through their choice of themes and experimental narrative technique. The thesis examines the translation into Turkish and the reception of linguistic creations and neologisms (or nova in Darko Suvin’s terms) in this body of works. The main theoretical framework is Foregrounding Theory and its cognitive/empirical use by several literary scholars such as Willie van Peer (1986), David S. Miall & Don Kuiken (1994), Jameljan Frank Hakemulder (2004) who have examined how linguistic distortions and parallelisms affect readers’ responses to texts. Through a comparative reading test conducted on a group of Turkish and Englishspeaking readers, the thesis explores how the translation of feminist nova reshapes and differentiates target readers’ reception of the author’s and characters’ perspectives from that of source readers. Assigning a central place to foregrounding as a large-scale manipulation strategy in the source texts, and using Teun A. van Dijk’s method of discourse analysis, the thesis also examines feminist nova and their relationship to axiological perspectives of the novels under analysis. Briefly, it carries out a multiple-foregrounding analysis of the production, translation and reception of the feminist nova that serve as “ideologemes” (Julia Kristeva) in feminist speculative fiction.
A critical study on Pınar Kür as author-translator: authorial and translatorial styles in interaction
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2011., 2011.) Aka, Elif.; Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.
The present thesis has two main goals: to explore interactions between Pınar Kür’s authorial and translatorial styles and to test the extent to which corpus methodology can be employed in the stylistic analysis of literary texts. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the texts in the corpus, which consists of Bitmeyen Aşk (1986), Bir Cinayet Romanı (1989), Geniş Geniş Bir Deniz [Wide Sargasso Sea] (1982), Dörtlü [Quartet] (1985), Karanlıkta Yolculuk [Voyage in the Dark] (1989), and Günaydın Geceyarısı [Goodmorning Midnight] (1990), demonstrate that there are various interactions between Kür’s authorial and translatorial styles. The study reveals that certain aspects of style would not be detected without a qualitative analysis despite the benefits provided by corpus software. The discourse analysis of the essays about author-translators in the journals Tercüme, Yazko Çeviri, and Metis Çeviri shows that author-translators were well-esteemed and expected to translate literary works into Turkish in stylistic similarity to the source texts particularly in the 1940s. The results of the investigation on Kür’s ‘habitus’ and the reception of her works in the fields of Turkish literature and literary translation show that Pınar Kür has considerable symbolic capital as an author-translator. The thesis further explores the agency of the author-translator positioned in the intersection of the Turkish literary polysystem and the system of literature in Turkish translation and identifies influences of her authorial habitus on her translatorial habitus and vice versa.
The city and its translators : |Istanbul metonymized and refracted in the literary narratives of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar and Orhan Pamuk in Turkish, English and French
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Ertürk, Şule Demirkol.; Paker, Saliha.
The present thesis explores the relationship between city and text, examining a selection of literary narratives of Istanbul by two main figures of Turkish literature: Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar and Orhan Pamuk. The selection consists of a section from the Turkish of Tanpınar’s narrative “Istanbul” (1945) from his Bes S ehir (1946) and of a chapter from Pamuk’s Istanbul, Hatıralar ve Sehir (2003) in addition to their translations into English (Five Cities, trans. Ruth Christie, forthcoming; Istanbul, Memoirs and the City, trans. Maureen Freely, 2006) and French (Cinq Villes, Paul Dumont, 1995; Istanbul, souvenirs d’une ville, trans. Jean-François Pérouse, Valérie Gay-Aksoy and Savas Demirel, 2007). In two case studies, following parallel chapters devoted to the contextualization of Tanpınar’s and Pamuk’s narratives, the selected texts are explored and analyzed in depth in three stages. In the first stage, the selected sections in the Turkish of Tanpınar and Pamuk are themselves examined as “translations” of the “text” inscribed in the city, on the assumption that cities can be analyzed as a “discourse” (Barthes, 1985) and read as a “cultural text” (Wirth- Nesher, 1996). In the second stage, the Turkish texts serve as the “source texts” of the interlingual English and French translations that are discussed. A third stage is explored in the analysis of the chapter from Pamuk in which the author not only translates Istanbul but Tanpınar’s version of Istanbul as well, by “translating” Tanpınar as an author, “rewriting” (Tymoczko, 1999a; Lefevere, 1985) him and “refracting” (Lefevere, [1982] 2000; Damrosch, 2003) his authorial identity. Thus, in three stages, the present thesis examines different representations of Istanbul also by foregrounding the “metonymics” of translation (Tymoczko 1999; 2000; Paker 2010a) and the role of all the translators. The choices of the translators of Istanbul are investigated with special emphasis on the translators’ “cognitive states” (Boase- Beier, 2003) and “attitudes” (Hermans, 2007). Based on textual and contextual analyses, this thesis aims to show that Translation Studies provide useful and relevant tools, concepts and methodologies for analyzing literary narratives about cities and their circulation in and between languages and cultures.
Turkey’s reading (R)evolution: a study on books, readers and translation (1840-1940)
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2011., 2011.) Erkul Yağcı, Ahu Selin.; Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.
This study explores the pioneering role of translation in the reading revolution the Ottoman-Turkish society went through in the period between 1840 and 1940. The rapid popularization of the novel shortly following its entry into Turkey via translation and the impetus this provided for the formation of a readership are the main reasons for choosing novels as the case in point. By attempting to discover what the readers in the period 1840 and 1940 were reading and how they could have selected, viewed and read, this study is designed to answer specific questions on readers and their reading habits based on a tripartite research structure consisting of production, marketing and consumption phases. For the production phase, a catalogue of translated and indigenous novels published in 1840 and 1940 is established. The bibliographical analysis reveals that a high proportion (46%) of the novels consisted of translated titles. This predominance is the first striking evidence of the formative role of translation in the reading revolution. The advertisements published in catalogues, newspapers and journals are studied as an intermediary between production and consumption phases. They serve as primary sources to reflect the historical context and reveal the characteristics of the strategies that were used while marketing translated and indigenous titles both synchronically and diachronically. The high frequency of the advertisements for translated titles, moreover, contributes to the main argument of the dissertation, i.e. the popularity of the translations among the readers. The consumption phase is studied through readers’ letters, biographical accounts and visual representations. These materials are important to illustrate readers’ active involvement in the process and how their participation shaped and was shaped by the production and marketing phases.
Writing/translating in/to English: The 'ambivalent' case of Elif Şafak
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Akbatur, Arzu.; Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.
This thesis explores the way Elif Şafak and her work (written and translated in/to English) have been received, represented and de/re-contextualized mainly in the Anglo-American world through a problematization of the discourses formed by the publishers, reviewers, scholars, as well as the writer herself. Apart from this particular Anglo-American context, the Turkish context and Şafak's '(self)translation" into Turkish is also analyzed to foreground the intertwined relationship between the source and target cultures. The thesis sets out to investigate the reception and representation of Şafak and her works from a wider perspective by examining the discourse constructed through the presentation of the books by the publishers, the reviewers' tendencies in recontextualizing and representing the writer and her output, and the writer's utterances in the interviews. The examination of this extratextual discourse is complemented by two case studies; one on the translation of Bit Palas (2002) into English (The Flea Palace, trans. F. Müge Göçek, 2004), the other on The Bastard of Istanbul (2007) originally written in English and then translated into Turkish (Baba ve Piç, 2006) by Aslı Biçen and the author. The critical and descriptive analyses of the case studies explore both the textual discourse formed particularly by Şafak, as revealed in her "writing/translating" strategies and the paratextual discourse emanating from elements such as the cover pages, blurbs, titles, etc. With these two levels of analysis (extratextual and textual), the thesis searches the interaction between translation and/or "self-translation", and the representation of the writer and her work informed by the norms and expectations of the target culture(s). The findings of the study reveal that ġafak's works written/translated in/to English accord with the target culture (principally Anglo-American) norms inscribed with certain linguistic and cultural values, political views as well as stereotypical perceptions of "foreign" cultures. The findings also suggest that the writer as a "selftranslator" played an "interventionist" and trans/formative role in the representation and recontextualization of her work by way of constructing a particular discourse both through her "writing/translating" strategies and her utterances in the interviews.
The canonization and popularization of realism in Turkish literary discourse through translation: a conceptual–historical approach
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2014., 2014.) Bozkurt, Seyhan.; Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.
This dissertation argues that approaching realism as a concept rather than a literary school or movement yields better results in terms of evaluating its impact on Turkish literature and the shaping of translation activities in the Republican Period. Linking Conceptual History, Polysystem Theory, and Critical Discourse Analysis, this study delves into the transfer of realism, its discursive relations, and its links with the systems with which it was associated, such as literature, both indigenous and translated, and politics. Tracing the journey of realism from the Tanzimat Period to the Republican Period, this study dwells specifically on the discourse seen in Varlık, one of the most important literary journals of the Republican Period, between the years 1933-1946. It demonstrates how, having been re-contextualized with reference to the significant components of the official ideology, a process which begins with its transfer into Turkish literature as a literary school in the Tanzimat Period, realism becomes a bridge concept linking the official ideology to literature and from there, the official ideology to the reading public. It reveals that the process of creating a national literature in the early Republican Period resulted not only in the canonization of realism in fiction but also in the popularization of the same. The latter was achieved by means of the re-contextualization of certain works of Western literature, which are called bestsellers in this study, whereby certain aspects of such works, which agreed with the conceptualization of realism at the time, were purposefully highlighted. It argues that the popularization of realism was both a trigger and a result of the process which turned realism into a pivotal concept in the literary field, furthermore expanding its realm beyond that of a mere literary school, as it had been in the Tanzimat Period.
The politics and poetics of translation in Turkey 1923-1960
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute of Social Sciences, 2001., 2001.) Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.; Paker, Saliha.
Contemporary research on translation history in early republican Turkey is marked by a focus on the activities of the Translation Bureau [Tercüme Bürosu] (1940-1966) at the expense of other publishers which operated in various fields of translated literature. Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar's The Politics and Poetics of Translation in Turkey 1923-1960 challenges this focus and sets out to reveal the complex and diversified nature of the system of translated literature in the first four decades of the Republic. The study is carried out on two levels. On the broad level, the dissertation investigates the implications of the political transformation experienced in Turkey after the proclamation of the Republic for the cultural and literary fields, including the field of translated literature. On a more specific level, it holds translation under special focus and explores the discourse formed on translation and translators in speeches, articles, prefaces or books concentrating on such issues as the functions and definitions of translation, translation strategies and the translator's visibility. This is complemented by a descriptive study of a series of translated texts from the fields of both canonical and popular literature which investigates the norms (not) observed by translators throughout the 1920s-1950s with special emphasis on paratextual elements, approaches towards textual integrity, and the treatment of proper names and foreign cultural elements. The findings of the study suggest that the concepts of translation both affected and were affected by cultural processes in the society, including ideological and poetological ones and that there was no uniform way of defining or carrying out translations during the period under study. The findings also point at the segmentation of readership in early republican Turkey and conclude that the political and poetological factors governing the production and reception of translations varied for different segments of readers.
Problematizing translated popular texts on women's sexuality: a new perspective on the modernization project in Turkey from 1931 to 1959
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Koçak, Müge Işıklar.; Paker, Saliha.
In this doctoral research, a database, the first of its kind in Turkey, is established for non-literary translated and indigenous texts for/on women published between 1828 and 1990. Since the critical analysis of the database reveals sexuality to have been the subject most translated and written about, ten texts on women’s sexuality published between 1931 and 1959 are selected for analysis in three case studies. In order to contextualize this corpus, a literature survey is presented of works on the history of Turkish women’s movements and the republican modernization project, along with a critical overview of non-literary articles (translated and otherwise) in women’s magazines. Firstly this thesis aims to analyze the complexities underlying translations, which bear significant consequences for the study of republican translation history: translations were altered in such ways that they became different from their source texts in terms of fullness; several assumed translations were in fact pseudotranslations, with no corresponding source texts, while some assumed indigenous texts were, in fact, concealed translations. Secondly, as an interdisciplinary study, the thesis aims to show that the discursive interventions of the translators foregrounded the issue of sexuality while aiming at informing female readers on the subject. When the full range of translations (those lacking in fullness, pseudotranslations, compilative and concealed translations) are compared with indigenous texts, it becomes clear that translators were less constrained than indigenous writers in expressing themselves and created a freer discourse of their own in the early republican period. Thus, this thesis also throws a fresh perspective on the republican modernization project by positing new findings to question arguments in Turkish women’s studies that women’s sexuality was suppressed in the nation-building process.
The city in translation :|representations of Istanbul in translated short story anthologies
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Akbaş Korkmaz, Safiye Merve.; Berk, Özlem.
This dissertation conducts an analysis of Istanbul-themed anthologies of Turkish short fiction, compiled and published for English and Turkish readers in the last thirty years. The analysis starts with an examination of the reasons for the increasing interest in Turkish literature, and conducts a textual and paratextual analysis across nine literary anthologies for a thorough exploration. This dissertation claims that the city has been exposed to translation three times: by anthologists in paratexts; by authors who translate factual cityscapes into texts; and by interlingual translators who translate short stories into English. Paratextual analysis sheds light on how the anthologists (translators, editors, publishers) represent the city to the source and target readers. Textual analysis casts light on how the city and its elements are rewritten in the original short stories and their translations. Both original short story writing and translating are acknowledged as rewriting activities (Lefevere 1992; 2000). Rewriters use framing (Baker 2006) as a strategy and negotiate the city through certain public narratives. Witnessing the organic bond between the city and its literature, the present study arrives at the conclusion that although anthology is perceived as a secondary production, anthology makers are capable of mediating literature through selection and presentation, thus steering city narratives in certain directions. This dissertation asserts that anthologies prove to be an efficient tool for readers to gain insight into other people’s lives and cultures. Moreover, not only authors but also interlingual translators actively participate in urban construction in the translated narratives. Recognizing Istanbul’s capability for empowering circulation of literature, and literature’s potential for disseminating images of the city for non-Turkish speaking audiences, the dissertation underlines literature’s metonymic relationship with the city.
Turkish translation in the steam translation server :|two case studies on video game localisation
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Sarıgül, Semih.; Ross, Jonathan Maurice.
As a sub-discipline of AVT, VGL has become a popular research topic around the world in the last decade. In addition to professional localisation service companies, volunteer and non-professional communities also play an important role in VGL processes in the world. However, in Turkey, despite the existence of both volunteer communities and professional localisation companies, academic studies on VGL are scarce. To fill this gap in the existing literature, the present study focuses on the STS as a volunteer VGL platform and a volunteer VGL community, i.e. TTC, and a professional VGL company, i.e. 23Studios, within it. To this aim, two different VGL projects by these groups, i.e. Dota 2 and W3WH, were analysed as case studies to explore similarities and differences between professional and non-professional VGL practices in the STS in Turkey. First, a participant observation was conducted to understand how translation crowdsourcing was used in the STS. Later, an online survey was carried out to investigate volunteer STS translators’ demographic profiles, understanding of translation and localisation and individual VGL experiences. Later, two different group interviews were held with TTC and 23Studios to explore non-professional and professional VGL processes in detail. The survey and interview findings demonstrated that volunteer translators in the STS displayed a homogenous profile to a certain extent and that VGL practices in both interviewed groups displayed significant differences in terms of process management and the use of technical facilities in the STS.
Recontextualizing Turkish Islamist discourse: Hilal (1958-1980) as a site of translational repertoire construction
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Üstün, Sema.; Berk, Özlem.
This study explores the functioning of translation in the recontextualization process of Turkish Islamism between 1960 and 1980. I argue that translation functioned as a crucial medium for the resurgence of Islamism in the early 1960s along with other decisive surrounding trajectories, which I propose to contextualize as an attempt to construct a domestic repertoire via importing key Islamic texts from around the world. The corpus of the study is a representative Islamist periodical Hilal, standing out with its remarkable dependence on translation. The analysis portrays a bi-faceted text- and agent-oriented methodology. The examination of the corpus is not limited to tercüme-çeviri [translation proper] and includes other distinctive translational text production practices such as hulâsa [summary], iktibas [borrowing], sadeleştirme [purification], etc. with a particular focus on the nucleus of translatorial agency, the translators. Coalescing the principles of translation history and Periodical Studies, this dissertation aims at introducing an exemplary study for translational research that is motivated to track the translation-oriented evolution of a discursive practice like Islamism through a particular periodical. As a further contribution, breaking the hegemonic orientations of the field of Translation Studies with its dependence upon non-literary and non-Western sources of translation, this study proposes an alternative “supranational/intra-ummah translation paradigm” for forthcoming studies on the translational practices under Islamic settings.
The relational processes of Turkish-Russian literary translation flow in the post-Stalin era (1953-1991)
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2018., 2018.) Takanay, Aslı.; Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.; Paker, Saliha.
The thesis explores the complex webs of relations, which functioned as the driving forces behind and within the Turkish-Russian literary translation flow that gained momentum between the death of Joseph Stalin (1953) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991) by concentrating on the "selection" and "labeling and classification" processes (Bourdieu, (1990) 2000, p. 222). To clarify and discuss the driving forces of the translation flow, the thesis offers a three-fold analysis: (a) the field analysis reveals the relations between the Soviet state policies and the dynamics of the translation flow in question, (b) the product analysis explores and problematizes the profile of the translated repertoire of Turkish literature and authors as well as the profile of the paratexts, and (c) the analysis of social agents and their activities also covers the examination of the profile of the extratextual materials produced by the Turkologists. In addition, with regard to the third aspect of the analysis, the thesis offers a case study concentrating on two particular Turkologists, whose views and actions differ from each other: Tevfik Melikov and Svetlana Uturgauri. The findings of the study reveal that the Turkish-Russian literary translation flow was driven by the priorities of the prevalent ideological mode of the Soviet socio-cultural context. This indicates not only the strength of the ideological mode, but also the fact that social agents responded to this mode at large. The findings also prove that questioning the relations between the field and habitus might help in understanding the reasons behind the deviant actions of a social agent.
(In) direct (Re) translations of leftist non-fiction in Turkish (1921-2016): Actors and networks
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2018., 2018.) Uslu, Muazzez.; Berk, Özlem.
This study surveys the retranslations of the leftist non-fiction books in Turkish from 1921 to 2016 and scrutinizes the reasons for the second wave retranslations. As The Communist Manifesto was the most frequently translated work, with 38 translations, six translations of the work were analyzed in the framework of an eclectic method based on actor network theory, critical discourse analysis, and an adapted version of Antoine Berman’s translation criticism path. An ideological clash between the first wave indirect and second direct translations was detected in the “voices” rising from paratextual elements. The predominant leftist ideology of the 1960s and the translations its actors produced were being challenged with criticisms and alternative readings and an increasing accumulation of knowledge of Marxism. As a case in point, the corpus of The Communist Manifesto indicated a rejuvenation movement in the Marxist oeuvre because the direct retranslations outnumbered the relay translations in the market in the second wave. Moreover, Turkish leftist discourse was evolving, with reiterations and inculcations.
Turkish translations of self-help "Success" books :|a collage/bricolage of moral narratives and new life ethics
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Akdoğan, Fazilet.; Tahir, Şehnaz.; Paker, Saliha.
This study analyzes the translation history of the success-based self-help literature in Turkish from the 1930s to the 1990s, focusing on the habitus and trajectories of the leading translators/authors whose agency paved the way in the transfer of this genre as well as depicting their specific translating/writing practices. It demonstrates that a cultural field of self-help has emerged mainly through translations since the 1930s in Turkey, and the success-based self-help books, which are considered as “moral narratives” in this study, have introduced a new ethical approach based on the metanarratives of capitalism and individualism. For the analysis of the translating/writing practices of the dominant translators/authors in the translation history under concern, a new conceptual tool, “collage/bricolage” is suggested and elaborated in this context as well. By examining the works of the dominant translators/authors through the concept of “collage/bricolage,” the study reveals the interrelatedness of translation and indigenous writing in the development of this genre in Turkish. It is illustrated that “collage/bricolage,” as the main form of translating/writing, has not only enabled these translators/authors to transfer some popular moral narratives into the Turkish culture but also served as a means of access to symbolic power and consecration in this field. The study also proves that collage as the paradigm of translation marks the continuation of the “telif” tradition in the twentieth century, in the sense theorized by Saliha Paker for the Ottoman translation history.
Symbiogenesis and representation: A history of Greco-Turkish song translation 1908 – 2012
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Pesen, Alaz.; Berk, Özlem.
The present study problematizes the alleged originality of songs that exist both in Greek and Turkish from the perspective of translation studies. Reviewing recent works on song translation, it points to a need for a historical method that integrates music and translation. Fusing Michel Foucault’s notion of “descent” with the notion of “interculture”, the study provides an understanding of the late Ottoman music scene, where musicians from different millets in the Ottoman Empire engaged in translatorial performance activities highly dependent upon notions of “mobility”, “orality” and “porosity”. Underscoring the historical impossibility of defining any song dating back to the late Ottoman context as a “Greek” or “Turkish” original, the study proposes the term “symbiogenesis”: the songs created by “anonymous contributors” not from nation-states, but from different millets in the Ottoman context. Applying Michel Foucault’s concepts of “emergence” and “masking” to the representations of the songs after the population exchange, the study demonstrates how “rewriting” practices at different levels can conceal the symbiogenetic nature of the songs at moments of political hostility or reveal the Greco-Turkish song symbiogenesis at moments of political rapprochement. With three case studies devoted to comparative analyses of song recordings from 1908 to 2012, the present study casts light on how a “genealogical” approach to interlingual and intralingual song translation can contribute to an “effective” understanding of ties between history and representation of songs at climactic moments.
Lives as translation, lives in translation: biographers and translators in search of a total Borges
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2016., 2016.) Elgül, Ceyda.; Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.; Paker, Saliha.
This study portrays translation and biography as analogous mediums of transcreation that confront similar constraints while constructing a representation of a selected source for a certain group of receivers. As points of intersection, it underlines: 1) the questionable authority of the rewriters; 2) the intertextuality of the products; 3) the ‘fluency/vividness’ of the narratives and the ‘(in)visibility’ of the producers (Venuti, 1998; 1994); 4) the concern of image-making through ‘refraction’ (Lefevere, 1992; 2000); 5) the motive of transparency. The English and Spanish language biographies of the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges and their translations into Turkish constitute the corpus of my two-layer setting. In the first context, heading from the above-mentioned points of intersection, I survey the source biographies as the ‘retranslations’ of the author’s life story, with a particular focus on the ‘competition’ among them (Venuti, 2004). Then I embark on two of these ‘alternative translations’ of Borges’ life-story pursuing a macro-to-micro focus; that is, I first explore the agency and publishing contexts of the biographies, then examine their fluency, reliability, accuracy, and their producer’s (in)visibility. The intertextuality and multilingualism of the works are also discussed in line with these matters. Following the analysis of the biographies as translation, the second frame investigates the journey of these works in translation. Pursuing the same macro-to-micro method, I trace how, under comparable constraints brought by rewriting a source, Turkish translators transfer (and/or reproduce) the image of the foreign constructed by the biographers.
De-Re- contextualising simultaneous interpreting: interpreters in the ivory tover
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute of Social Sciences, 2001., 2001.) Diriker, Ebru.; Bengi-Öner, Işın.
Simultaneous Interpreting (Sn Research has been dominated by cognitive and neurolinguistic paradigms with little attention devoted to the simultaneous interpreter as a professional working in social, ideological and interactional contexts and to the interdependency between these contexts and actual SI performance. Different from the mainstream approach, Ebru Diriker's "De-lRe-Contextualising Simultaneous Interpreting: Interpreters in the Ivory Tower?" sets out to 'contextualise' SI behaviour. The first part focuses on the broader socio-cultural context around SI by exploring the (re )presentation of the profession( al) in the meta-discourse which suggests that in the general discourse interpreters are pre-dominantly (re )presented as professionals capable of identifying with the speaker and transferring the meanings intended by them completely, fluently and without becoming personally involved in shaping the 'meaning'. As against this background, the second part explores the performance of interpreters and the nature of the interpreted utterance within the context of an actual conference. The findings challenge many of the widely held assumptions regarding S1 and suggest that simultaneous interpreters do not render the meaning assumed to exist in the original but negotiate a meaning in context, their 'delivery' does not only represent the speaker but a multiplicity of speaker-positions and identifying with the speaker's 1 st person does not come naturally but creates a source of tension, vulnerability and strength for the interpreter. The findings also point to the mythical and purposeful nature of the meta-discourse, underscore the need to revise some of the basic assumptions in S1 literature and call for a more concerted approach to analysing actual S1 behaviour as a 'situated action'.
The periodical as a site of translational inquiry into hollywood-driven vernacular modernism: the Turkish Film Magazine Yıldız (1938–1954)
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2016., 2016.) Özmen, Ceyda.; Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz.; Paker, Saliha.
Contemporary research in translation studies is marked by a focus on textual production in book form at the expense of other publishing genres. The present study challenges this focus and centers on a ‘marginal’ genre: the periodical. Rather than considering the periodical as container of discrete elements and construing translation and translators within it as detached from the surrounding context, the study sets out to introduce a broader perspective on the connections of translation and the periodical. Since one of the major aims of the study is to draw attention to the relevance of periodicals to translation studies research, it starts off by proposing concepts and methodological tools for analyzing the links between translation and the periodical. It appears that translation studies and periodical studies as young and developing disciplines have much to offer each other. The investigation of the film fan magazine, Yıldız [Star] adds further layers to the research and allows for an unusual multidisciplinary cross-fertilization. The findings of the study suggest that without a comprehensive perspective on the translational features of the magazine, it is impossible to arrive at a thorough understanding of it. Revealing that translation is linked to Yıldız in a number of different ways, the study points out the key role extrafilmic translation practices played in the reception of modernity that came along with classical Hollywood films and places Yıldız within a broad culture planning framework.

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