Abstract:

Translation of theater texts creates a two-way research area, thanks to the openness of both Theater Studies and Translation Studies to interdisciplinary research. In particular, examining plays that exist in more than one translation and that have been staged in different arenas enables comparative research into areas such as translation poetics and common translator strategies during the period of the translation. In this study, two target texts, both published and staged in different periods, have been scrutinized in connection with the theories of André Lefevere, which characterize translation as rewriting. The texts in question are translations of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, one of the leading playwrights of 20th century America. This play, set during the Great Depression in the 1930s, depicts the life struggles of a family of three, whose biggest problems are triggered by the presence of a “guest.” Translations of the play entered the Turkish literary system in the forms of Can Yücel's text Sırça Kümes and Aytuğ İzat's text Sırça Hayvan Koleksiyonu, published by the Ministry of Education and Mitos Boyut Publishing respectively. These translations have been staged by state-funded theaters, such as the State Theaters and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theaters, as well as by private theaters. The source and target texts were read comparatively, alongside each other according to the “stereoscopic reading” method of Marilyn Gaddis-Rose. In this comparative reading, the translators’ decisions, as observed in the target texts, were analyzed in the context of the translation of theater texts. The choices made, in terms of the transfer of cultural characteristics, characteristics of theater texts, and linguistic expressions, were examined under various sub-headings and explained as translator’s decisions, versions, and interpretations.

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