A target oriented descriptive study of the two translated versions of Orhan Pamuk's "The Black Book" concerning the elements and figures of storytelling and writing

Abstract

This study deals with the two translated versions of Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book and aims at carrying out a comparative analysis of the translated texts by Güneli Gün (1994) and Maureen Freely (2006) with a focus on the translation preferences of the recurrent elements and figures of storytelling and writing since The Black Book (Kara Kitap), as a postmodernist novel, is marked with the dominant motifs of storytelling and writing concerning the posture of authorship. These categories relatively refer to neutral devices and technical vocabularies. The study therefore deploys a target-oriented framework, exploring the translators' visibility or invisibility in terms of Schjoldager's microstrategies. The study maintains a descriptive analysis of the two versions and draws conclusions as to the degree of linguistic or cultural preferences of the translators. First, the translated versions have been examined and compared with the source text, and secondly, the interchangeable and mutually borrowed items are highlighted, evaluated and discussed according to the relevant categories. The study concludes that Gün's translation, foregrounding the art of storytelling, stresses figures and elements of storytelling and writing, and adopts a more technical perspective with the appreciation of the postmodernist art whereas Freely seems to have more of an interest in the representation of an İstanbulite text where the content is flourished with "oriental spices."