The analysis of translator identity and translation decisions of the Turkish translation of Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred through paratexts

The ultimate purpose of feminist translation is to have the voices of women heard in transnational platform as a rebellion against the oppression, violence, and cruelties implemented on them. In this study, the Turkish translation of Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred which was translated into Turkish as Yakın by Emek Ergün and published by Ithaki Publishing House in 2019 was analyzed “paratextually” as put forward by Gérard Genette (1997). The source text in this study, Kindred was published in 2003 by Beacon Press. The aim of this study is to analyze the translator identity in the context of “voices in translation” and “translation pact” asserted by Cecilia Alvstad (2013, 2014) and to examine how the discursive presence of the translator fictionalizes the relationship between the translator and the readers by explicating the decisions of the translator and the foundations of the translation. As a result of the analysis in this study, it was observed with the help of her preface and translator notes that Ergün’s being a feminist translator and expert as an academician in the field affected her decisions in the process of translation. Besides, it was found out that her preface and translator’s notes made her discursive presence visible, constituted the “implied reader” in target culture in the position of “implied author” as proposed in Chatman's Narrative Communication Model (1978) and this discursive presence of her enabled the translation to be read as original by the target readers in the scope of translation pact.