Öz Çevirinin Gücü: Insomnia Café Örneği

Abstract

This present article aims to contextualize the power of self-translation through a case study. The subject of this case study is a comic series called Uykusuz, written and drawn by Kutlukhan Perker and published in the Turkish comics magazine L-Manyak between 2004-2005. In 2009, the English self-translation of this series was published by Dark Horse Comics in the USA with the title Insomnia Café. Although the series was written in Turkish first, in 2017 the self-translated English version of the series was translated back to Turkish by a translator, Emre Yavuz. In this study firstly, Perker's Turkish text and his self-translation are compared; then, the original Turkish text and the Turkish back translation from the English self-translation are examined within Javier Franco Aixela’s conceptual framework of ‘conservation’ and ‘substitution’. The findings elucidate that while self-translating Perker has changed all Turkish culture-specific items to American ones, showing that he has adopted ‘autonomous creation’ strategy for substitution. In the back translation performed over the self-translation, which has undergone ideological manipulation, the translator, Emre Yavuz has conserved the text and adopted 'repetition' strategy the most. Because of Perker’s manipulation, when the self-translated version is translated back into Turkish the series looks like a product of American culture instead of a Turkish one. This shows the power of self-translation and highlights the self-translator’s authority; so, the need for further case studies on self-translation is emphasized.