Martine or Ayşegül? A Discourse Analysis of Ayşegül Translations within the Framework of Recontextualization

Abstract

The present study offers an analysis of the processes through which the Martine series is translated from French into Turkish as Ayşegül, from the perspectives of discourse analysis and children’s literature translation. More specifically, it examines the recontextualization of social practices in the translated texts. Recontextualization is considered here as the transformation of social practices from one text to another. This transformation occurs through shifts in the internal components of social practices, such as participants, actions, times, locations, and resources. To analyze these shifts, the study draws on the analytical framework for recontextualization proposed by van Leeuwen (2008). The dataset consists of 35 Martine books in French and their 121 Turkish translations produced by different publishers and translators. To conclude, we indicate that the source texts are highly open to localization in the translation process. We also discuss how participants, specific actions, times and locations and material resources that constitute social practices are rendered in Turkish in culturally embedded ways.