Research Article

On “Foreign Language Creation” and “Textless Back Translation”: The case study of a historical novel The Turks and Türkler by David Hotham

Number: Ö11 July 21, 2022
  • Dilşen Çakmak *
TR EN

On “Foreign Language Creation” and “Textless Back Translation”: The case study of a historical novel The Turks and Türkler by David Hotham

Abstract

Literary works are representatives of their own culture whereas translations generally represent cultures of others. There are indeed some exceptional situations that compel translation as a discipline to interact with some other disciplines like history and cultural studies. When a literary text introduces its readers to another culture and represents a foreign culture through translation, things get complicated in terms of translation. It becomes more intriguing if the translator “find himself writing his own history” while translating a historical novel on his people and homeland (Karadağ, 2019: 32). This study aims to make a descriptive study of David Hotham's historical novel The Turks and its Turkish translation Türkler by Mehmet Ali Kayabal, in the light of "Foreign Language Creation" and "Textless Back Translation”. The findings of the research highlight the choices of various translation methods used in the translation of a historical novel, the switch of roles in between translator and writer, and unveils the emergence of some critical questions by virtue of distinctive representations of the same literary text. The research in this respect tries to describe the outcomes of “Foreign Language Creation” and “Textless Back Translation” in historical texts and through the questions it puts forward it calls for further research in the field.

Keywords

References

  1. Avşaroğlu, M. & Karadağ, A. B. (2020). “Foreign Language Creation” and “Textless Back Translation”: A Case Study on Turkish Translations of Jason Goodwin’s Ottoman-Themed Works Written in English. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 10(5), 107-119.
  2. Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for Cross-cultural Research. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 1(3), 185-216.
  3. Fitzgerald, E. (2009). Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  4. Guo, T. (2017). On Foreign Language Creation and Rootless Back Translation: A Case Study of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Journal of Literature and Art Studies 7(10), 1354–1364.doi:10.17265/2159-5836/2017.10.017
  5. Hotham, D. (1972). The Turks. London: John Murray.
  6. Hotham, D. (1973, [1972]). Türkler. (M. A. Kayabal. Trans.). İstanbul: Milliyet Yayınları.
  7. Hotham, D. (2000, [1972]). Türkler I. (M. A. Kayabal. Trans.). İstanbul: Yeni Gün Haber Ajansı Basın ve Yayıncılık.
  8. Hotham, D . (2000, [1972]). Türkler II. (M. A. Kayabal. Trans.). İstanbul: Yeni Gün Haber Ajansı Basın ve Yayıncılık.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Linguistics

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Dilşen Çakmak * This is me
0000-0002-1089-316X
Türkiye

Publication Date

July 21, 2022

Submission Date

June 16, 2022

Acceptance Date

July 20, 2022

Published in Issue

Year 2022 Number: Ö11

APA
Çakmak, D. (2022). On “Foreign Language Creation” and “Textless Back Translation”: The case study of a historical novel The Turks and Türkler by David Hotham. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, Ö11, 622-639. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1146743

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