Description

Translation is 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. 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. Through a review of a variety of scandalous translation cases that have generated much legal academic and public debate in Turkey this talk explores the question of translator agency under an emerging authoritarian regime with a focus on the institutional forms of censorship in the production of translated literature. By casting light on the multifaceted power relations between the agents of translation and institutions of power a study on censorship and translator agency also contributes to ongoing studies of how larger systems of culture and literature evolve.