Abstract
This study seeks to scrutinize extratextual discourses which frame the Turkish translations and post-translation rewritings of Hamlet as an instrument of national self-imagining and projecting Turkey’s self-image in different socio-political and historical contexts. The study points out that various discourses see image construction as the major motive behind the different versions of Hamlet in Turkey. It also underlines that the extratextual material surrounding the retranslations and rewritings focus on various contextual dynamics that reveal how Turkey is torn between dualities that frame its image in line with the narratives of modernity and tradition, secularism and religion, easternness and westernness. In this context, the study emphasizes that theatre translation, and particularly the translations of Hamlet, formed significant part of the late Ottoman Empire’s and modern Turkey’s westernization efforts. Ultimately, the study concludes that discourses on the Hamlet renderings have foregrounded what is and what is not part of Turkey’s historically constructed self-image by bringing the West alongside the East, centering on how the retranslations and rewritings promote Turkey’s Western (secular and modern) identity against a largely negative representation of its eastern cultural identity.
 
 Key words: Hamlet, Turkey, retranslation, post-translation rewriting, image
Highlights
The retranslation of a literary text is in effect “ the translation of a text which is already translated, yet a way of thinking about translation” (Samoyault 233).1 emphasis on dialogic intertextual relationships that any post-translation rewriting may establish with the rather complex web of texts can yield more productive and creative ways of thinking about retranslation
Following Bassnett and Lefevere, who believe that in today’s global world, a text’s image is in effect more influential than the written text itself [9,10], Gentzler calls for a post-translational turn in translation studies which concentrates on the image created by the rewriters who have played with source texts and remoulded them into their own novel images rather than the image that was created by the source text or even by the paratextual and/or extratextual materials regarding the source text [199]
Every time a source text is rendered into new image(s), the narratives embedded in the text become reframed in elusive or radical ways
Summary
The retranslation of a literary text is in effect “ the translation of a text which is already translated, yet a way of thinking about translation” (Samoyault 233). emphasis on dialogic intertextual relationships that any post-translation rewriting may establish with the rather complex web of texts can yield more productive and creative ways of thinking about retranslation. Following Bassnett and Lefevere, who believe that in today’s global world, a text’s image is in effect more influential than the written text itself [9,10], Gentzler calls for a post-translational turn in translation studies which concentrates on the image created by the rewriters who have played with source texts and remoulded them into their own novel images rather than the image that was created by the source text or even by the paratextual and/or extratextual materials regarding the source text [199].3 In this context, the social narrative theory framework encourages the researcher to consider the text more deeply, reading between the lines so to speak, and as a result, looking beyond the text that is presented, and to consider the text within the greater social and cultural framework. The focus will be on how the implications of various extratextual discourses affected the expansion of the boundaries of retranslation studies (e.g., how multiple artistic and creative works born out of prototypical interlingual translation are approached as well as how the post-translation effects of Hamlet are discussed in Turkey)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
