Challengıng the Other Translatıon: Frederıck Burnaby's on Horseback through Asia Minor's Adventure ın Turkish

Abstract

This article sets out to scrutinize two different Turkish translations of the English writer Frederick Burnaby’s travel writing On Horseback through Asia Minor (1878/1996). On Horseback through Asia Minor’s adventure in Turkish is an interesting case because the first translation was published in 1998 by Sabah Kitapları but just one year after this publication, another translation appeared on the Turkish book market, which was published by İletişim Yayınları. However, what is more interesting than these translations, which were published almost simultaneously, is the discourses of the publisher regarding the first translation on the cover of the presentation of the second translation. The publisher claims that the text is a “meticulous”, “uncensored” and “complete” translation, which points out that the previous translation included “censored” and “incomplete” parts. Therefore, this study questions the publisher’s claims by conducting a paratextual and textual analysis of the source text and target texts and also seeks to understand whether the causality created by the publisher led to the second translation or a retranslation. In its theoretical framework, it uses the concept “paratext” put forward by the French scholar Gérard Genette and “operational norms” introduced by the translation scholar Gideon Toury. The findings suggest that the second target text, rather than a “retranslation”, is a simultaneous translation that emerged incidentally almost in the same period, addressed the same target readers, and tried to bring out its difference from the other translation. It is also seen that the claims of the publisher in the second target text on the grounds of “censorship” and “incompleteness” are valid and this causes a rivalry between translations in the translated book market by not only strongly challenging the other translation but also forming market negativity towards it.