Retranslation Hypothesis Revisited for The Jungle Book: Time versus Context in Retranslation

Abstract

Rudyard Kipling was first introduced to Turkish literature with the Turkish translation of his children’s literature work titled The Jungle Book in 1936, which was followed by a good number of retranslations up until today. This study aims to test the main assumptions of the retranslation theory with five different Turkish translations of The Jungle Book. The retranslations were compared with each other, along with the first translation in terms of text-bound and culture-specific items, as well as the historical and contextual background in which the translations were produced. To this end, the study can be divided into two main parts as regards the method adopted. In the first part, a diachronic analysis was conducted with a specific focus on the socio-contextual conditions of the translation periods. In the second part of the study, a synchronic analysis was made to re-test the hypothesis. Based on the comparative examples provided, it was found that there was no linear progression to a more target-oriented approach among the first and retranslations as asserted in the retranslation hypothesis. Instead, contextual factors of the time when the translation was produced and published were found to be more determinant in the translation choices of the translators. The selection of case studies also seems to affect the approval or refusal of the hypothesis in the literature. In this sense, it is suggested to apply both synchronic and diachronic analysis to obtain more reliable findings on the concept and nature of retranslation.