Kültür Çevirisi Üzerine: Kuramsal Açılımlar, Disiplinlerarası Yönelimler ve Güncel Tartışmalar

Öz

Bu makale, kültür çevirisi kavramının günümüzdeki anlamını, işlevini ve sosyal bilimler alanında farklı disiplinlerdeki yerini tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır. Makale bunun yanı sıra, kavramın çeviribilim alanındaki gelişimini, kavramsallaştırılmasını ve konumunu da inceleyecektir. Roger Keesing’in 1985 yılında ilk kez ortaya attığı kültür çevirisi kavramı, disiplinlerarası araştırmalarda önemli yankı bulmuş; antropoloji, etnografya, kültürel çalışmalar, sömürgecilik sonrası çalışmalar ve çeviribilim gibi alanlarda farklı yönleriyle tartışılmıştır. Bu bağlamda kavram, kimi zaman kuramsal bir çerçeve, kimi zaman yöntemsel bir araç, kimi zaman da analitik bir mercek olarak kullanılmış; tanımlanmış, yorumlanmış ve eleştirilmiştir. Özellikle kültürel çalışmalar ve sömürgecilik sonrası yazında, kimlik müzakereleri, kültürlerarası etkileşim ve güç ilişkilerinin çözümlenmesinde işlevsel bir yaklaşım olarak öne çıkmıştır. Çeviribilim bağlamında yürütülen tartışmalarda ise kavramın sınırlarının tam olarak çizilememesi temel bir sorun olarak dikkat çekmektedir. Kültür çevirisinin neyi kapsadığı ve hangi bağlamlarda kullanılabileceği konusundaki belirsizlik, bir yandan kavramın kuramsal zenginliğini ve esnekliğini gösterirken, diğer yandan kavramsal muğlaklığına işaret etmektedir. Bu muğlaklık, araştırmacılar açısından hem yeni açılımlar sağlayan bir imkân, hem de netlik ihtiyacını gündeme getiren bir sorun olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Makale, öncelikle kavramın ortaya çıktığı dönemden günümüze kadar nasıl yorumlandığını ve farklı alanlarda nasıl yeniden tanımlandığını inceleyecek; ardından son yıllarda yapılmış akademik çalışmalardaki yerini ve hangi yaklaşımlarla kavramsallaştırıldığı güncel örnekler üzerinden tartışacaktır. Böylece, kültür çevirisinin hem kuramsal hem de yöntemsel açıdan sunduğu katkılar ortaya konulacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• kültür çevirisi
• çeviribilim
• disiplinlerarasılık
• çeviri kuramları
• kültürel dönemeç

On Cultural Translation: Theoretical Perspectives, Interdisciplinary Approaches, and Current Debates

Öz

This article examines the contemporary meaning, function, and disciplinary positioning of the concept of cultural translation, while also tracing its development and conceptualization within translation studies. First introduced by Roger Keesing in 1985, the term has generated considerable interdisciplinary interest, finding application in anthropology, ethnography, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and translation studies. In these fields, cultural translation has been variously employed as a theoretical framework, a methodological tool, or an analytical lens, and has been defined, redefined, and critiqued in multiple ways. Particularly in cultural and postcolonial studies, it has served as a productive approach to exploring negotiations of identity, intercultural encounters, and the analysis of power relations. In translation studies, however, cultural translation has often raised the problem of indeterminate boundaries: what precisely the term encompasses and the contexts in which it can be applied remain open to debate. This ambiguity underscores the concept’s theoretical richness and adaptability, while simultaneously pointing to its vagueness. For researchers, this duality has been both a source of productive new insights and a challenge requiring greater definitional clarity. The article first considers how the concept has been understood and reinterpreted from its initial emergence to the present, mapping its reformulations across disciplinary contexts. It then focuses on recent debates within translation studies, analyzing how cultural translation has been conceptualized in current scholarship and through selected examples. In doing so, it highlights the theoretical and methodological contributions that the concept continues to offer to the study of translation and beyond.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• cultural translation
• translation studies
• interdisciplinarity
• theories of translation
• cultural turn

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