Translating Molly Bloom’s meandering inner voice: a case study of Turkish translations of the Penelope episode from Ulysses

Abstract

This study aims to compare the Turkish translations of the last chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, i.e., Penelope in chronological order by Murat Belge, Nevzat Erkmen, and Armagan Ekici. There are many different reasons why this section was specifically chosen. First of all, the Penelope episode is described as a “locus classicus” of the autonomous monologue, as Dorrit Cohn puts it, “the most famous and most perfect example of its kind” (Cohn, 2008: 229). This chapter is constructed from beginning to end by the first-person narrator, leaving out entirely the authorial narrative; it provides an example of independent, self-standing autonomous text governed only by the inner world and by keeping the connotations of the outside world to a minimum, as is typical of the stream of consciousness technique. In addition, some feminist theorists, notably Hélène Cixous, have suggested that Joyce set the first example of the écriture féminine with the Penelope episode. On the other hand, the Penelope episode represents the night, dream state, and the continuous, fluid consciousness, thus heralding the transition to Joyce’s other masterpiece, Finnegans Wake. Another reason that makes this episode so particular is that it is the most well-known monologue of the most famous woman in the history of literature. In this study, after the discussion of the importance and the structural and linguistic features of the Penelope episode as a general framework, the translations of the section by three different translators will be evaluated in the context of non-referential and ambiguous pronoun system and obscene language usage.