A Sociological Mapping of Female and Feminist Translation in Türkiye

Abstract

In recent years, feminist translation studies have gained prominence in Türkiye, with the intersection of feminism and translation more widely recognized sociologically. This dissertation employs Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory as a theoretical framework and Massardier-Kenney's (1997) feminist translation strategies as an analytical tool to examine the development, scope, and characteristics of female and feminist translation in Türkiye. Through corpus-based and paratextual analyses and responses to a questionnaire from academics in gender studies graduate programs at 28 universities, the study explores the emergence of a subfield within translation studies. The questionnaire was developed to evaluate the opinions of agents affected by and involved in feminist praxis. Three keywords (feminism, feminist, and gender) were used to scan the catalogs of the 28 universities and the Women’s Library Information Center Foundation. This identified a corpus of 889 original works and 590 translations. The corpus was analyzed to determine the profiles of translators, authors, publishers, and source languages, as well as the application of feminist translation strategies such as recovery, commentary, and collaboration. The analysis revealed various actors before and after the 2000s, which has significant implications considering the evolution of feminism in Türkiye. The findings suggest that Bourdieu’s sociological approach effectively illuminates the field's structural dynamics. Additionally, the publishing sphere associated with the corpus can be defined as a space that functions as a structural order indicating the relative positions of fields and agents within society. The female and feminist translation space exhibits characteristics of a subfield of feminism in Türkiye. The visibility and roles of translators, especially women, have evolved over time, reflecting broader shifts in feminist academic and cultural discourse in Türkiye. Based on the methodology adopted in this study, a new model called the "feminist circle" has been proposed. This research contributes to the growing body of feminist translation scholarship and suggests directions for future studies, including deeper textual analyses and more expansive interdisciplinary approaches.