Analysis On The Two Turkish Translations Of John Grisham's The Pelican Brief With Regard To Domestication And Foreignization

Abstract

ABSTRACT

ÖZELSANCAK, Mehmet Onur. Analysis On The Two Turkish Translations Of John Grisham's The Pelican Brief with regard to Domestication And Foreignization, Master's Thesis, Ankara, 2019.

This study seeks to carry out an analysis on the two Turkish translations of The Pelican Brief by John Grisham with regard to Lawrence Venuti's domestication and foreignization strategies. In this respect, the Turkish translations by Mehmet Harmancı (1992) and Şefika Kamçez (2008) constitute the corpus of the study. Grisham frequently employs legal terminology in his work as in his previous works of legal thrillers. In addition to the legal terminology peculiar to the common law in the US, there are various culture-specific items (CSIs) related to the American culture. This study seeks to determine which approach has been predominantly adopted by each translator in the translation of legal terminology and CSIs. Aixela's microstrategies of substitution and conservation have been employed in ascertaining the predominant approach. The items to be analyzed in the study have been classified in two categories. The translations of randomly selected 30 legal terminology items have been analyzed in the first category whereas another set of randomly selected 30 CSIs in 6 subcategories (Brands, Measurements, Acronyms, Foreign Vocabulary, Foods and Drinks, Social and Ethnic Groups) have been analyzed in the second category. Furthermore, the study makes use of Venuti's concept of Translator's (in)visibility in order to determine which translator remained more visible.

Moreover, the study takes into consideration Even-Zohar's Polysystem Theory in order to ascertain whether the general approach and strategies adopted in each translation are related to the peripheral position of legal thrillers in the Turkish literary polysystem, which have made their debut in the early 1990s via translations. Therefore, it seeks to to determine the position of translated crime fiction works in general and that of legal thrillers in particular in the Turkish literary polysystem by taking into consideration the origin of crime fiction in the West, its subgenres, how and when they have been introduced to the Turkish literary polysystem.

In conclusion, the study reveals that the first translator adopted predominantly the domestication approach and remained less visible in the early 1990s when legal thrillers started to debut in the Turkish literature. In contrast, the second translator has been found to have employed extensively a more foreignizing approach in the 2000s when both translated and indigenous works of crime fiction seemed to thrive in the Turkish literature, which has rendered her more visible as a translator.

Key Words

John Grisham, The Pelican Brief, legal thriller, legal terminology, culture-specific items, Venuti, domestication and foreignization