A Cross-Temporal Analysis of Intralingual Translation: The Case of Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar’s Works in Türkiye

Abstract

This study links the shifting language policies in Türkiye to the discourses of intralingual translations, taking into account the political and secularisation trajectory of the country. The thesis seeks to demonstrate the role and function of intralingual translations played in the evolution of the Turkish language and discourse within the framework of the establishment of (de)secularisation, the construction of cultural memory, and the achievement of linguistic hospitality. To accomplish its aims, the present study carries out a cross-temporal analysis of Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar’s three novels Gulyabani, Kuyruklu Yıldız Altında Bir İzdivaç and Efsuncu Baba written before the Turkish language reform and their intralingual translations conducted by various private publishing houses throughout the Republican history. Seeing discourse as a historically constructed entity, the present study employs Discourse Historical Approach devised by Ruth Wodak (2001) to conduct a cross-temporal analysis of the intralingual translations of Gürpınar’s novels. The discourse patterns detected in various intralingual translations reflect the ideological positioning of the time period in which they were created. In conclusion, the reconceptualisation of intralingual translations conducted across different time periods within the framework of Turkish translation history demonstrates that the discourse on Ottoman Turkish is reconstructed based on the prevailing ideologies of the respective production periods during the Republican era. It is revealed that the notion of ‘language modernisation’ remains inadequate to fully encompass the extent of these intralingual translations, as they both secularise and modernise the discourse of the source text and demonstrate cultural, social, political and historical zeitgeist. Therefore, research on intralingual translations sheds light on the multifaceted relationship between the Republic of Türkiye and its Ottoman past, as well as its gradual trajectory towards secularisation and modernisation.