Translation as a Norm-breaking Activity: A Case-study on the Turkish Translation of Marjorie Housepian Dobkin’s Smyrna 1922 The Destruction of a City

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate the norm-breaking dimension of translation which is considered by various scholars (Toury 1995, Brownlie 1999, Schäffner 1999, Chesterman 2000, and the like) to be primarily norm-governed. İzmir 1922 Bir Kentin Yıkımı, the Turkish translation of Marjorie Housepian Dobkin s Smyrna 1922 The Destruction of a City, which was published by the Belge International Publishing House in 2012, is used as a case study in this thesis. The integration of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) serves as an important methodological perspective to relate the translated text (TT) to the social cognition in Turkish society. In this respect, the critical approaches of Teun A. van Dijk and Norman Fairclough, two prominent scholars in the field of CDA, are adopted in this thesis.