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TRANSLATOR AGENCY IN TURKEY UNDER CENSORIAL CONSTRAINTS: 1990s to the PRESENT

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dc.contributor.advisorEdwin Gentzler
dc.contributor.advisorMoira Inghilleri
dc.contributor.advisorJames Hicks
dc.contributor.advisorDilek Dizdar
dc.contributor.authorSariz Bilge, Inci
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.date2024-03-27T20:09:22.000
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T15:31:14Z
dc.date.available2024-05-10T00:00:00Z
dc.date.submittedMay
dc.date.submitted2019
dc.description.abstractIn this dissertation titled “Translator Agency in Turkey under Censorial Constraints: 1990s to the Present,” I explore the question of translator agency under an emerging authoritarian regime, i.e., the country of Turkey from the 1990s to the present. I first focus on institutional, structural, and self-imposed forms of censorship by reviewing a variety of scandalous translation cases that have generated much legal, academic, and public debate in contemporary Turkey. I then highlight various ethical, legal, and professional responsibilities ascribed to translators as a result of these findings. I next explore significant connecting points between translational behavior and various institutions of power, including the government, courts, publishing houses, and educational institutions. I argue that rethinking the issue of translator agency within a framework of censorship can shed light on both the unusual and imperceptible constraints that impinge on translational activity and, in turn, how those resulting translations further impact broader forms of cultural and literary development. I concentrate upon two sets of translational phenomena in Turkey that converge on the interface of translator agency and censorship: (1) prosecution of translators on the grounds of their translations, and (2) cases of ideological manipulation. In the first group, the objectionable words or passages are clearly cited; in the second group, the objections to the translators’ decisions are less clear and are often labelled as “self-censorship” or “ideological distortion” in public discourse. My investigation of these cases is informed by the theoretical approaches of scholars advocating for the “power” and “social” turns in translation, censorship, and literary studies. Translation is indeed one of the spheres where the effects of an ideology are most visible because what is allowed and proscribed to exist in a culture is immediately reflected on the constraints surrounding the agents of translators, e.g., the translators, editors, publishers, and their resulting translational behavior. Further, by casting light on the multifaceted power relations between the agents of translation and institutions of power, this study on censorship and translation agency also contributes to ongoing studies of how larger systems of culture and literature evolve.
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.description.departmentComparative Literature
dc.description.embargo2024-05-10T00:00:00-07:00
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7275/14215140
dc.identifier.orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7829-7313
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/17863
dc.relation.urlhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2687&context=dissertations_2&unstamped=1
dc.source.statuspublished
dc.subjecttranslation
dc.subjectcensorship
dc.subjectagency
dc.subjectTurkey
dc.subjectconstraint
dc.subjectIntellectual History
dc.subjectLanguage Interpretation and Translation
dc.subjectLegal
dc.subjectTranslation Studies
dc.titleTRANSLATOR AGENCY IN TURKEY UNDER CENSORIAL CONSTRAINTS: 1990s to the PRESENT
dc.typecampusfive
dc.typearticle
dc.typedissertation
digcom.contributor.authorisAuthorOfPublication|email:incisariz@gmail.com|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst|Sariz Bilge, Inci
digcom.date.embargo2024-05-10T00:00:00-07:00
digcom.identifierdissertations_2/1624
digcom.identifier.contextkey14215140
digcom.identifier.submissionpathdissertations_2/1624
dspace.entity.typePublication
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