Compiling and Analysing the Oeuvre of Women Translators and Feminist Translator Studies in the History of Türkiye

Abstract

Feminist Translation Studies have gained a significant prominence in last decades globally. Translator Studies, in a similar orientation, have contextually grown significantly from 1990s onwards. In this context, 2020s have witnessed the emergence of a Feminist Translator Studies along with the existing accumulation of translator-centered research on women translators, specifically focusing on women translators and the other agents included in the process through a feminist lens. In this context, the main aim of this study is to seek for patterns regarding the social and translational presence of women translators in the history of Türkiye. To this aim, this study conducts a three-folded analysis inspired by the archival methodology defined by Atefmehr & Farahzad (2022) regarding the oeuvre of women translators. In the preliminary stage, the ULAKBİM database was thoroughly scanned for research articles under the subfield of Feminist Translation Studies in Türkiye. The articles were investigated for clues of women translators and then analyzed to locate the position of translator-centered research within the subfield. 75 names of women translators were collected in this context. In harmony with the bibliographical data collection outline in translation history suggested by Poupaud et al. (2009), two bibliographical lists comprising the translated and indigenous works of the translators were created through the data collected from TO-KAT database. The metatextual data in this context were analyzed in two parts, presenting macro and micro findings regarding the oeuvre of women translators; thematized through the key elements of the translator biography, suggested by Eberharter (2021), in combination with the notions of translational and social presence proposed by Farahzad (2017). The findings of the study imply that women translators in Türkiye were cultural pioneers affecting their respective milieux through their translational presence. Reciprocally, they were also affected by the act of translation in terms of their social presence. Moreover, their translational and authorial patterns differed in terms of the genres they translated, publishers they worked with, and the source languages they translated. Along with the macro and micro findings regarding the oeuvre of translators, the bibliographical lists created in this study also constitutes a source that could be utilized in further translator-centered research, in the context of Feminist Translator Studies in Türkiye.