The Transfer Of Ideology In Translation: Three Turkish Translations Of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Mütercim Tercümanlık, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2023

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: Şevval Topal

Danışman: Atalay Gündüz

Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu

Özet:

This study aims to reveal how the social and political criticisms of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is transmitted through discourse in three different Turkish translations, and the influence of translators and publishing houses on discourse during this transfer. In 30s and 40s, some states and libraries in the USA banned The Grapes of Wrath for a certain period of time due to the social problems the novel has dealt with, which led it become one of the most controversial novels in history. In our country Turkey, in which it is possible to see similar social issues as in the novel even today, how the ideologically significant elements are conveyed and received in the target culture, and how the translations reflect all other socio-cultural aspects of the book during the translation process is the objective of the analysis.

This study analyses three Turkish translations of The Grapes of Wrath through Critical Discourse Analysis. Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework which is considered a suitable approach for the type of study this thesis is, has been synthesized so as to explain the translators’ and publishing houses’ ideological inclination and approach to the transfer of ideological elements in translations.

As for the result gathered from both extratextual and textual analysis sections of the study: Establishing hierarchy and hegemony in the texts is the gateway of why ideological ideas are formed in the society. Therefore, the translators, who share ideological ideas which the novel carries within, have a better command of finding and transferring the message given in the discourse. The fact that actors who participated in the translation process of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath have pursued the socio-political conditions of given periods in target culture is a noteworthy finding in the analysis. This thesis hazards an opinion about possible reflections of The Grapes of Wrath in which a certain approach / ideology towards some social problems predominates, on Turkish context / society. However, generalisation of the idea that reception and influence of literary books with similar ideologies in Turkey could be in the same way as this novel, can only be a far-fetched assumption since more expansive research is required to consolidate this implication.