Inquiry into the (Con)textual and cultural gist of Orhan Pamuk translations in English

Abstract

The translations of the works by Orhan Pamuk are significant in a variety of ways. Some of the notable English translators of his eminent works, namely Maureen Freely and Güneli Gün, shed light on how translation strategies can be employed influentially and effectively in that they contribute to the cultural exchange between Türkiye and the United States and the United Kingdom. Their strategic choices not only promote their achievement in cultural transfer into target American and British audiences by their target texts but also reveal the ways wherein such translation studies notions and concepts such as identity and ideology of the translator have crossed over national boundaries in the globe, which is the playground for international agents, power relations, and bonds of sovereignty. Henceforth, the visibility of Maureen Freely and Güneli Gün in their target texts both illuminates the nature of the multifaceted profound role of the translator and enables us to interrogate the intertwined effects of the cultural exchange both on Anglo-American and Anglo-Saxon audiences as receptive cultures and Turkish source culture as the hereditary of a rich cultural and literary tradition. Within this study, the English translations of Orhan Pamuk’s İstanbul Hatıralar ve Şehir by Maureen Freely and Yeni Hayat by Güneli Gün have been selected as the sampling. As for relevant methodology, textual analysis and document analysis have been prioritized. The findings both involve translation studies in particular and (global) culture in general.