Tracking the Translator in the Translation of the Post-Modern Novel Frankissstein – A Love Story

Abstract

This study follows the translator’s voice in the translation of the post-modern novel Frankissstein – A Love Story (2019) by Jeanette Winterson. In this literary work, Winterson retells the Gothic novel Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818) with two parallel stories. While one story takes place in the nineteenth century and concentrates on Mary Shelley’s ongoing effort to write her novel Frankenstein, the second story is a modern-world narration that takes place in England around the time of Brexit. Although they are from different times and places, the characters in these two mirrored stories share the same concerns such as life, death, technology, and being human. With her translated novels, Winterson has become a well-received author in Turkish literature, and Pınar Kür is among those who have translated various Winterson novels. Frankissstein: Bir Aşk Hikayesi (2021) is the third Winterson novel translated by Kür, who is a literary figure by herself both as an author and as a translator. With her distinctive style and innovative narration techniques, Kür’s own works and translations have already been a research topic. In this study, a textual comparison is carried out between the source and target texts to detect Kür’s voice as a translator and to understand whether her translatorial voice carries traces of her authorial voice. The findings demonstrate that Kür is highly visible within the text itself with additions, omissions, and expansions.

Keywords

• author-translator
• visibility
• post-modern novel
• Pınar Kür
• Jeanette Winterson

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