Translation Studies and Remakes: A Case Study on Translation of Culture Specific Items in Turkish Remake of TV Series Shameless (US)

Abstract

Considering its field of study, translation studies is quite suitable for interdisciplinary work and remakes are one of them. Remakes took their place in the history of cinema with the movie Un partie de cartes in 1896. The involvement of remakes in the field of translation studies took place much later. This situation has caused a scholarly gap in the field of translation studies considering that the remakes are widely used in the media outlets of today's world. The aim of this study is to examine remakes in order to contribute filling this gap and to analyze how culture specific items (CSIs) are transferred in remakes. To this end, the TV series Shameless (US) and its Turkish remake Bizim Hikaye are analyzed. CSIs in the source and target series are identified and analyzed according to Pedersen’s (2005) translation strategy model. It was found that, in line with the unique characteristic of remakes, translators mainly preferred target oriented translation strategies in translating CSIs and translation was highly influenced by the socio-cultural characteristics of the target culture, especially in the translation of certain sub-headings. It was demonstrated that almost all translation strategies, due to the nature of remakes, aim to bring the source text closer to the target text. The translation strategies include complete omissions as well as situational paraphrase and cultural substitution. In parallel with the socio-cultural characteristics of the target culture, a particular pattern has been identified in the strategies utilized in the translation of sexuality and taboo related items, brand names and CSIs in the religious context. It has been revealed that this pattern detected in the use of translation strategies also affects the narrative of the story and makes the target series a TV show that considers social sensitivities more than the source series.