Translation of Tennesse Williams’s The Night of the Iguana as a Novel and as a Play: A Descriptive Study

Yıl 2019, Cilt: 2 Sayı: 2, 159 - 179, 31.12.2019

Nilüfer Alimen Taha Akdağ

https://doi.org/10.29228/transLogos.17

Öz

The aim of this study is to explore translation of theatre texts through a comparative analysis of two Turkish translations of the play The Night of the Iguana (1961) by Tennessee Williams: İguananın Gecesi (1990) translated by Ülker İnce as a play and İguana Gecesi (1966) translated by Canset Unan as a novel, both of which are interlingual translations. What makes the case of the two Turkish translations under scrutiny unique is that while İnce’s translation is an intragenre translation, Unan’s translation is an intergenre translation. In the study, both target texts have been analyzed in terms of the strategies employed by the translators with a focus on additions, omissions and transformation of tense. The results of the analysis discussed in the light of Skopos Theory have revealed that the main source of difference between the translation strategies deployed by the two translators is the shift of genre. Thus, it is argued that the different strategies used in the translations might be explained on the basis of the two different skopoi as manifest in the translation strategies examined. It is further claimed that the case illustrates how agents of translation might take the liberty of specifying their own translation skopos under the shaping influence of socio-historical, cultural and even economic circumstances of the target literary system.

Anahtar Kelimeler

theatre translation, intragenre translation, intergenre translation, Tennessee Williams, The Night of the Iguana

Kaynakça

• Akdağ, Taha. 2019. “Analysis of Two Translations in Different Literary Genres of the Play The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams.” Master’s thesis, Istanbul 29 Mayıs University.
• Aksoy, Berrin. 2002. Geçmişten Günümüze Yazın Çevirisi [Literary translation from past to present]. Istanbul: İmge.
• Ball, David. 1983. Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
• Bassnett-McGuire, Susan. 2014. “Ways through the Labyrinth: Strategies and Methods for Translating Theatre Texts.” In The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary Translation, edited by Theo Hermans, 87–102. New York: Routledge.
• Bassnett, Susan. 1991. “Translating for the Theatre: The Case against Performability.” TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 4 (1): 99–111. doi:10.7202/037084ar.
• Bassnett, Susan. 1998. “Still Trapped in the Labyrinth: Further Reflections on Translation and Theatre.” In Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation, edited by Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere, 90–¬108. Clevedon: Cromwell Press.
• Beerbohm, Max, Aylmer Maude, and Bernard Shaw. 1961. “Translating Drama: A Saturday Review Debate.” The Shaw Review 4 (1): 2–10. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40682383.
• Berk, Özlem. 1999. “Translation and Westernisation in Turkey (from the 1840s to the 1980s).” PhD diss., University of Warwick.
• Bulut, Sibel. 2015. “Romandan Piyese Bir Uyarlama Örneği Olarak Çalıkuşu.” [Adaptation of a novel to a play: The case of Çalıkuşu.] Turkish Studies 10 (16): 387–402. doi:10.7827/TurkishStudies.8786.
• Bulut, Sibel. 2016. “Türk Tiyatrosunda Uyarlama (1860–1923).” [Adaptation in Turkish theatre (1860–1923).] PhD diss., Hacettepe University.
• Demirkol, Neslihan. 2006. “Can Yücel’in Shakespeare Çevirilerinde ‘Sadakat.’” [“Loyalty” in Can Yücel’s Shakespeare translations.] PhD diss., Bilkent University.
• Genette, Gérard. 1997. Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Translated by Jane E. Lewin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Haleva, Beki. 2011. “Tiyatro Çevirisi Bağlamında Bernard-Marie Koltès Oyunlarının Türkiye’deki Dolaşımı.” [Circulation of Bernard-Marie Koltès’ dramas in Turkey as a part of drama translation.] PhD diss., Yıldız Technical University. Harvey, John. 2006. “Fiction in the Present Tense.” Textual Practice 20 (1): 71–98. doi:10.1080/09502360600559795.
• Jakobson, Roman. (1959) 2004. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In The Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti, 113–118. London: Routledge. PDF e-book.
• Karantay, Suat. 1988. “Tiyatro Çevirisinin Sorunları.” [Problems of theatre translation.] Metis Çeviri, no. 2, 78–88.
• Karantay, Suat. 1995. “Tiyatro Çevirisi: Oyun Dili ve Çeviri.” [Theatre translation: Language of the play and translation.] In Çeviri ve Çeviri Kuramı Üstüne Söylemler [Discourses on translation and translation theory], edited by Mehmet Rifat, 93–118. Istanbul: Düzlem.
• Link, Franz H. 1980. “Translation, Adaptation and Interpretation of Dramatic Texts.” In The Languages of Theatre: Problems in the Translation and Transposition of Drama, edited by Ortrun Zuber, 24–50. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
• Loffredo, Eugenia, and Manuela Perteghella, eds. 2009. One Poem in Search of a Translator: Rewriting ‘Les Fenêtres’ by Apollinaire. Bern: Peter Lang.
• Maral, Nurdan, 2010. “Tiyatro Metin Çevirilerinde Çeviri Sorunları.” [Translation problems in translations of theatre texts.] Master’s thesis, Dokuz Eylül University.
• Meyer, Stephen C. 2009. “Illustrating Transcendence: Parsifal, Franz Stassen, and the Leitmotif.” The Musical Quarterly 92 (1–2): 9–32. doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdp013.
• Minutella, Vincenza. 2013. Reclaiming Romeo and Juliet: Italian Translations for Page, Stage and Screen. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
• Özmen, Ceyda. 2010. “From Movie/Script to Novel: Translated Popular Cinema Novels in Turkey from 1944 to 1957.” Master’s thesis, Dokuz Eylül University.
• Page, Norman. 1988. Speech in the English Novel. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Pavis, Patrice. 1989. “Problems of Translation for the Stage: Interculturalism and Post-Modern Theatre.” Translated by Loren Kruger. In The Play out of Context: Transferring Plays from Culture to Culture, edited by Hanna Scolnicov and Peter Holland, 25–44. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Pavis, Patrice. 2005 “Toward Specifying Theatre Translation.” Chap. 6 in Theatre at the Crossroads of Culture. Translated by Loren Kruger. London: Routledge.
• Perry, John. 1968. “Adapting a Novel to the Stage.” The English Journal 57 (9): 1312–1315. doi:10.2307/812138.
• Sionis, Claude. 2000. “Intermodal and Inter-Genre Translation in Scientific Writing.” ASp [Online], no. 27–30. doi:10.4000/asp.2112.
• Tahir-Gürçağlar, Şehnaz. 2008. The Politics and Poetics of Translation in Turkey, 1923-1960. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
• Tellioğlu, Banu. 2018. “Şiir Çevirisi Eleştirisinde Çevrilebilirlik/Çevrilemezlik İkiliğini Aşmak.” [Overcoming the dichotomy of translatability and untranslatability in poetry translation criticism.] RumeliDE Journal of Language and Literature Studies, no. 11, 192–213. doi:10.29000/rumelide.417493.
• Topçu, Hayrunisa. 2017. “Romandan Tiyatroya: Değirmen-Sarıpınar 1914.” [From novel to theatre: Değirmen-Sarıpınar 1914.] Journal of History Culture and Art Research 6 (4): 960–979. doi:10.7596/taksad.v6i4.1046.
• Vermeer, Hans J. 1996. A Skopos Theory of Translation: Some Arguments for and against. Heidelberg: TEXTconTEXT.
• Vermeer, Hans J. 2000. “Skopos and Commission in Translational Action.” Translated by Andrew Chesterman. In The Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti, 221–232. London: Routledge.
• Vural Kara, Sergül, and Erdinç Aslan. 2015. “Moliere’in L’Avare Eseri Işığında Tiyatro Metinleri Çevirilerinin Dil Kullanımları Açısından Değerlendirilmesi.” [Evaluation of language usage of theatre texts translations in the light of L’Avare de Moliere.] Journal of International Social Research 8 (36): 267–273. doi:10.17719/jisr.2015369506.
• Weber, Markus. 1990. “Dramatic Communication and the Translation of Drama.” Bulletin CILA, no. 52, 99–114. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/20655544.pdf.
• Werth, Paul. 1999. Text Worlds: Representing Conceptual Space in Discourse. London: Longman.
• Williams, Tennessee. 1962. The Night of the Iguana. New York: New Directions.
• Williams, Tennessee. 1966. İguana Gecesi. Translated by Canset Unan. Istanbul: Altın Kitaplar.
• Williams, Tennessee. 1990. İguananın Gecesi. Translated by Ülker İnce. Istanbul: Can.
• Zuber, Ortrun. 1980. “Problems of Propriety and Authenticity in Translating Modern Drama.” In The Languages of Theatre: Problems in the Translation and Transposition of Drama, edited by Ortrun Zuber, 92–103. Oxford: Pergamon Press.