Translation of fictive culture-specific items in The Hunger Games trilogy

Abstract

In this paper, the main purpose is to examine the fictive culture-specific items (CSIs) in the The Hunger Games trilogy and what kind of translation strategies are used in their Turkish translations. As the concept of culture is essential for translation studies, analysing culture-specific items is accepted to be one the most appropriate methods of observing the translator’s approach to the text. The case study was conducted using Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy and their Turkish translations performed by Sevinç Seyla Tezcan. In line with the dystopian quality of The Hunger Games trilogy, the CSIs were sorted out to include fictive items which were invented by the author to constitute an imaginary world. They were grouped under five categories taken from Eggen’s (2016) work on The Hunger Games with the addition of allusive proper nouns (PNs). The detected items in both texts were compared to determine the strategies used by the translator. As regards to the translation strategies, two separate groups were determined for the analysis of CSIs and PNs. The list of strategies was established by putting together seven strategies offered by Baker and two direct translation procedures offered by Vinay and Darbelnet. During the labelling process, an intercoder reliability calculation was conducted. As the last step, an interview was designed to obtain relevant data in order to make a fair judgment on Tezcan’s approach to the original texts. Ultimately, the translator’s tendency either to domesticate or foreignize the text was revealed on the basis of Venuti’s (2004) theory.

Keywords

• Translation strategies,fictive culture-specific items,The Hunger Games trilogy

Açlık Oyunları üçlemesinde kurgusal kültürel öğelerin çevirisi

Abstract

Bu çalışmanın temel amacı The Hunger Games üçlemesindeki kurgusal kültürel öğeleri ve bu üçlemenin Türkçe çevirilerinde hangi çeviri stratejilerinden yararlanıldığını incelemektir. Kültür kavramı çeviribilim açısından önemli olduğundan kültürel öğelerin analiz edilmesi çevirmenin metne yaklaşımını gözlemlemede en uygun yöntemlerden biri olarak kabul edilir. Örnek olay incelemesi, Suzanne Collins’in The Hunger Games üçlemesi ile Sevinç Seyla Tezcan tarafından Türkçe’ye kazandırılan Açlık Oyunları üçlemesi üzerinden yapılmıştır. Kültürel öğeler, üçlemenin distopik niteliğine uygun olarak yazarın hayali bir dünya oluşturmak için yarattığı kurgusal öğelerden seçilmiştir. Bu öğeler Eggen’in (2006) The Hunger Games üzerine yaptığı çalışmadan esinlenilerek, gönderme içeren özel isimlerin de eklenmesiyle beş kategori altında sınıflandırılmıştır. Hem İngilizce hem Türkçe metinlerden çıkarılan öğeler çevirmen stratejilerini belirlemek üzere karşılaştırılmıştır. Çeviri stratejileri kültürel öğeler ve özel isimler için olmak üzere iki kategoriye ayrılmıştır. Bu stratejiler, Baker tarafından önerilen yedi strateji ile Vinay ve Darbelnet’in ortaya koymuş olduğu iki çeviri stratejisinden oluşmaktadır. Stratejilerin atanması aşamasında kodlayıcılar arası güvenirlik hesaplaması yapılmıştır. Son aşama olarak da Tezcan’ın orijinal metinlere yaklaşımı ile ilgili uygun bir çıkarımda bulunmak üzere kendisiyle yazılı bir mülakat gerçekleştirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, Venuti’nin kuramına dayanarak çevirmenin metni yerelleştirme ya da yabancılaştırma yönündeki eğilimi ile ilgili yargıya varılmıştır. 

Keywords

• Çeviri stratejileri,kurgusal kültürel öğeler,Açlık Oyunları üçlemesi

References

1. Aixelá, J. F. (1996). Culture-specific items in translation. In R. Alvarez, and C. A. Vidal (Eds.), Translation, power, subversion (pp. 52-78). Frankfurt: Multilingual Matters. Baker, M. (2011). In other words: A coursebook on translation (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge. Brasienė, B. (2013). Literary translation of culture-specific items in Lithuanian translation of Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London (Master’s thesis, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania). Retrieved March 20, 2017 from http://vddb.laba.lt/fedora/get/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2013~D_20130605_131601-47559/DS.005.1.01.ETD. Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York: Scholastic Press. Collins, S. (2009). Açlık oyunları (S.S. Tezcan, Trans.). İstanbul: Pegasus Yayınları. (Original work published, 2008). Collins, S. (2009). Catching fire. New York: Scholastic Press. Collins, S. (2009). Ateşi yakalamak (S.S. Tezcan, Trans.). İstanbul: Pegasus Yayınları. (Original work published, 2009). Collins, S. (2010). Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic Press. Collins, S. (2010). Alaycıkuş (S.S. Tezcan, Trans.). İstanbul: Pegasus Yayınları. (Original work published, 2010). Davies, E. E. (2003). A Goblin or a dirty nose: The treatment of culture-specific references in translation of the Harry Potter books. The Translator, 9(1), 65-100. doi:10.1080/13556509.2003.10799146. Eggen, J. B.S. (2016). Perceptions of Panem: How the translation of culture-specific items in The Hunger Games affects the Norwegian reader's interpretation of the fictional universe (Master’s thesis, Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, Norway). Retrieved February 8, 2017 from https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/handle/11250/2403976. Fictive. [Def.2]. (n.d.). In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved May 2, 2017 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fictive. Genre. [Def.1]. (n.d.). In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved December 5, 2016 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre. Howard, B. (2009). Capitalizing proper nouns. Retrieved March 15, 2017 from http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000045.htm Jaleniauskienė, E. and Čičelytė, V. (2009). The strategies for translating proper names in children’s literature. Studies About Languages, 15, 31-42. Mellinger, C. D., and Hanson, T. A. (2017). Quantitative research methods in translation and interpreting studies. London and New York: Routledge. Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. New York and London: Prentice- Hall. Newmark, P. (2010). Translation and culture. In B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (Ed.), Meaning in translation. Frankfurt: Peter Long GmbH. Nord, C. (2003). Proper names in translations for children: Alice in Wonderland as a case in point. Meta XLVIII, 1(2), 182-196. doi: 10.7202/006966ar. Odlöw, E. (2015). What is in a name?: An interdisciplinary study of allusive character names and implied meaning in The Hunger Games (Bachelor degree paper, University of Gothenburg). Retrieved January 17, 2017 from https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/38564/1/gupea_2077_38564_1.pdf. Proper name. (n.d.). Retrieved December 28, 2016 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proper name. Rosmarin, A. (1986). The power of genre. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press. Schleiermacher, F. (2012). On the different methods of translating. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 43-63). London and New York: Routledge. Superordinate. (n.d.). In Macmillan Dictionary Online, Retrieved June 1, 2017 from https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/superordinate. Toury, G. (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. Tymoczko, M. (1999). Translation in a postcolonial context: Early Irish literature in English translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. van Dijk, K. P.E. (2012). Trouble in dystopia: Translating Matched, Crossed and Reached by Ally Condie (Master’s thesis, Utrecht University, Netherlands). Retrieved January 15, 2017 from http://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/254815. Venuti, L. (1998). The scandals of translation: Towards an ethics of difference. London and New York: Routledge. Venuti, L. (2004). The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation. London and New York: Routledge. Venuti, L. (2009). Translation, intertextuality, interpretation. Romance Studies, 27(3), 157-173. doi: 10.1179/174581509X455169. Vinay, J.P. and Darbelnet, J. (1995). In J. C. Sager (Ed. and Trans.), Comparative stylistics of French and English: A methodology for translation. Benjamins Translation Library. Williams, J. and Chesterman, A. (2002). The map: A beginner’s guide to doing research in translation studies. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Wittman, E. O. (2013). Literary narrative prose and translation studies. In C. Millán and F. Bartrina (Eds.), Routledge handbook of translation studies. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 438-450.