Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
LITERA, cilt.33, sa.2, ss.107-216, 2023 (ESCI)
Queer translation brings new possibilities for expanding the definitions of gender
identities and sexual orientations in the contexts of language. By adding alternative
meanings to sexual expressions outside the heterosexual matrix, this type of translation
has the potential to deconstruct the given categories of gender and sexuality in
patriarchal culture. This is further enhanced by the collective ventures of literary
agents publishing literary texts with queering perspectives in defiance of the
aggression, stigmatization, and discrimination against sexually marginalized identities
in society. This study aims to find answers to the question of how translatorial decisions
affect the outlook of queerness in Yakut Orman, Dılşa Ritsa Eşli’s 2021 Turkish translation
of Rita Mae Brown’s (1973) Rubyfruit Jungle, which is considered a reference book for
queer literature in the Western world. This study is comprised of three parts. The first
part provides an outline of the queer translation approach as a novel critique of the
reflections of heteronormativity within translation practices in the target language,
literature, and culture system. The second part presents a brief analysis of the implicit
and explicit references to queerness in Rubyfruit Jungle, while the third part focuses
on how the notion of queerness has been recreated in its Turkish translation Yakut
Orman within the context of Démont’s (2018) conceptualization of queer translation.
Ultimately, Eşli is revealed to have given accurate depictions of the queer identity in
some areas, but Eşli’s queering perspective failed to reach its full potential due to the
intense use of Démont’s misrecognizing translation with the implication of the
hegemonic heterosexual and/or male gaze in the Turkish version, resulting in a limited
representation of queerness in the target context.