A TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF PREFACES WRITTEN FOR MODERNIST NOVEL (RE)TRANSLATIONS: UNDERSTANDING PARATEXTS AS A TOOL OF RECONTEXTUALIZATION
Vol.9, Issue 1, 2023, pp. 81-106 Full text
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.23.1.5
Web of Science: 001021117300005
Authors:
1 Neslihan Kansu-Yetkiner https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8703-2069
2 Ilgın Aktener https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9166-1362
3 Nazlıgül Bozok https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2214-0963
4 Pınar Danış https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2450-8154
5 Aslı Melike Soylu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4946-889X
6 Aysu Uslu Korkmaz https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5050-9882
Affiliation:
1, 2, 3, 5 İzmir University of Economics, Izmir, Türkiye 04hjr4202
4 Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Türkiye 00dbd8b73
6 İstanbul Beykent University, Istanbul, Türkiye 03dcvf827
Abstract
This study focuses on paratexts as recontextualization tools, specifically prefaces written for (re)translations, and problematizes Turkish (re)translations of modernist novels written in English, which, for reasons of morality, encountered legal difficulties, and were stigmatized, banned, or confiscated in the source culture. Recontextualization resonates with (re)producing ideologies, exposing various agents' deliberate power positions in determining discourse structures within the more general framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. Against this backdrop, this study, which is part of a larger project, has a twofold purpose: a) to evaluate 15 prefaces extracted from (re)translations of 10 modernist novels as a tool for recontextualization; and b) to investigate the preface discourse regarding the transfer of modernist novels into the target culture through the lens of transitivity analysis, based on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) model. SFL proposes that the main system by which experiential meaning is associated with process choices within the framework of ideational meta-function is transitivity; transitivity analysis is therefore applied to the prefaces to unveil the relationships established between the processes and the actors. The analysis of findings revealed that recontextualization was functionalized to create an explicit, rather than an implicit discourse structure through the intensive use of material processes. It concludes that prefaces written to (re)translations in Turkish context, as liminal devices between the fictitious and real worlds, are clearly instrumentalized to position the key players in the adaptation, promotion, and representation of these books within their new cultural context, and thus, were designed to influence the discourse surrounding the transfer of modernist novels into the target culture.
Keywords: Paratexts, Transitivity, Recontextualization, Retranslations, Modernist
Literature
Article history:
Submitted: 06 April 2023
Reviewed: 04 May 2023
Accepted: 11 May 2023
Published: 20 June 2023
Citation (APA):
Kansu-Yetkiner, N., Aktener, I., Bozok, N., Danış, P., Soylu, A. M., Uslu Korkmaz, A. (2023). A Transitivity Analysis of Prefaces Written for Modernist Novel (Re)Translations: Understanding Paratexts as a Tool of Recontextualization. English Studies at NBU, 9(1), 81-106. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.23.1.5
Copyright © 2023 Neslihan Kansu-Yetkiner, Ilgın Aktener, Nazlıgül Bozok, Pınar Danış, Aslı Melike Soylu and Aysu Uslu Korkmaz
This open access article is published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. If you want to use the work commercially, you must first get the authors' permission.
Funding:
Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) 04w9kkr77
This study is a part of a 1001 Project numbered 220K032, which is funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK).
References
Bloor, T., & Bloor M. (2004). The Functional Analysis of English. A Hallidayan Approach. Arnold. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203774854
Bradbury, M., & McFarlane, J. (1976). Modernism. Penguin.
Bradshaw, D. (2006). Obscenity and Censorship. In D. Bradshaw & K. J. H. Dettmar (Eds.), A Companion to Modernist Culture and Literature (pp. 508-519). Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996331.ch10
Butler, C. (2010). Modernism: A Very Short Introduction (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
Calzada Pérez, M. (2007). Transitivity in translating: the interdependence of texture and context (Vol. 8). Peter Lang.
Childs, P. (2002). Modernism. Taylor & Francis eBooks.
Childs, P., & Fowler. R. (2006). The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms. Taylor & Francis eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203462911
Chilton, P., & Schäffner, C. (2002). Introduction: Themes and Principles in the Analysis of Political Discourse. In P. Chilton & C. Schäffner (Eds.), Politics as Text and Talk. Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse (pp. 1-41). John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.4.03chi
Eggins, S. (1994). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. Pinter Publisher.
Eggins, S. (2004). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics (2nd ed.). Continuum.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Polity Press.
Fairclough, N. (2000). New Labour, New Language. Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203697078
Gasiorek, A. (2015). A History of Modernist Literature. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118607305
Genette, G. (1997). Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation (J. E. Lewin, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.
Gillies, M. A., & Mahood, A. (2007). Modernist literature: An introduction. Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748631612
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. (1999). Construing experience through meaning: A language based approach to cognition. Cassell.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Hasan, R. (1989). Linguistics, Language and Verbal Art. Oxford University Press.
Hodge, B., & Kress, G. R. (1993). Language as Ideology (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Kansu-Yetkiner, N., Duman, D. ve Avşaroğlu, M. (2018). Çevirmen Neredesin? Çocuk Edebiyatı Yanmetinlerinde Çevirmenin Kılıcı Rolü ve Görünürlüğüne Artsüremli Bir Yaklaşım: 1929-2013 [Translator, Where Are You? A Diachronic Approach to Translator's Agency and Visibility in Children's Literature Paratexts: 1929-2013]. Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi, 24, 17-34.
Kovala, U. (1996). Translations, Paratextual Mediation, and Ideological Closure. Target, 8(1), 119–147. https://doi.org/10.1075/target.8.1.07kov
Laver, M., Benoit, K., & Garry, J. (2003). Extracting policy positions from political texts using words as data. American political science review, 97(2), 311-331. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055403000698
Linell, P. (2001). Approaching Dialogue: Talk, Interaction and Contexts in Dialogical Perspectives (2nd ed.). John Benjamins Publishings.
Magistrale, L. (2009, October 23). Transitivity System. SlidePlayer. https://slideplayer.com/slide/581675
Matz, J. (2006). The Novel. In D. Bradshaw & K. J. H. Dettmar (Eds.), A Companion to Modernist Culture and Literature (pp. 215-226). Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996331.ch23
Olson, L. (2006). Sex and Sexuality. In D. Bradshaw & K. J. H. Dettmar (Eds.), A Companion to Modernist Culture and Literature (pp. 143-152). Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996331.ch14
Potter, R. (2012). Modernist Literature. Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748634330
Potter, R. (2013). Obscene modernism: Literary censorship and experiment 1900-1940. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199680986.001.0001
Schäffner, C. (2008). 'The Prime Minister said ...': Voices in translated political texts. Synaps, 22, 3-25. https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/1912
Semino, E., Deignan, A., & Littlemore, J. (2012). Metaphor, Genre, and Recontextualization. Metaphor and Symbol, 28(1), 41-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2013.742842
Tahir-Gürçağlar, Ş. (2002). What Texts Don't Tell: The Use of Paratexts in Translation Research. In T. Hermans (Ed.), Crosscultural Transgressions: Research Models in Translation Studies II: Historical and Ideological Issues, (pp. 44-60). St. Jerome.
Watts, R. (2000). Translating Culture: Reading the Paratexts to Aimé Césaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal. TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction, 13(2), 29-46. https://doi.org/10.7202/037410ar
Review:
1. Reviewer's name: Undisclosed
Review Content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons
2. Reviewer's name: Undisclosed
Review Content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons
Handling Editor: Boris Naimushin
Verified Editor Record on Publons