Research Article


DOI :10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761   IUP :10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761    Full Text (PDF)

Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*

Cihan Alan

TV subtitles are mostly euphemized and ideologically recontextualized with individual and/or institutional motivations for the target viewer in Türkiye due to varying socio-cultural and political factors. Accordingly, subtitlers are faced with challenges in providing adequate translations for source taboo language, including sexually explicit swearwords and vulgar slang. However, censorship policies in AVT may conversely urge translators to be involved in a more creative process, which may, in turn, result in the subversion of the very censorious discourse. The aim of this study is to investigate censorship as an ideological and translation constraint in TV subtitling, as well as a factor laying the grounds for creating possible meanings in subtitling. To this end, a descriptive analysis was conducted based on the TV subtitles of South Park, an American sitcom animation show. The analysis shows that institutional norms force translators to be creative in transferring the taboo language to preserve humorous and obscene narrative content, which appears as a queer effort whereby the taboo meaning is destabilized, particularly in the case of references to sexual organs and homosexuality. The qualitative and quantitative analyses provide an overview of the translation strategies employed and the pragmatic effect created by freelance subtitlers translating for private media institutions from English into Turkish in the case of the taboo language. The case presented in this study can also give an insight into the translator’s performativity in AVT through which meanings are created in the target culture under repressive circumstances. 

DOI :10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761   IUP :10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761    Full Text (PDF)

Sansür mü, yoksa Kuirleştirme mi? Türkiye’de South Park’ın TV Altyazı Çevirisi

Cihan Alan

Türkiye’de TV altyazıları, çeşitli sosyo-kültürel ve politik etmenler temelinde, bireysel ve/veya kurumsal motivasyonlarla, hedef izleyici için ideolojik olarak örtmeceli ve yeniden bağlamsallaştırılmış şekilde sunulmaktadır. Buna bağlı olarak, altyazı çevirmenleri, cinsel içerikli küfürler ve kaba argo ifadeler de dahil, kaynak tabu dilin çevirisinde yeterliliği sağlamakta zorluklarla karşılaşmaktadır. Ancak, görsel-işitsel çeviride sansür politikaları, aksi yönde çevirmenleri daha yaratıcı bir sürece dahil edebilir ve bu da sansürcü söylemin altüst edilmesiyle sonuçlanabilir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, TV altyazılamada bir ideolojik ve çeviri kısıtı olarak, yanı sıra altyazıda olası anlamların yaratılmasına zemin hazırlayan bir etmen olarak sansür olgusunu incelemektir. Bu amaçla, Amerikan yapımı bir durum komedisi animasyonu olan South Park’ın Türkçe TV altyazıları üzerinden betimleyici bir çözümleme gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çözümlemenin sonuçları, kurumsal normlara bağlı çevirmenlerin tabu dili aktarırken mizahi ve müstehcen anlatıyı korumak amacıyla yaratıcı çözümler bulmaya zorladığını; bunun durumun da, özellikle cinsel organlara ya da eşcinselliğe gönderme içeren anlamların istikrarsızlaştırıldığı, kuir bir çaba olarak kendini göstediğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu nitel ve nicel çözümleme, özel medya kuruluşları için İngilizce’den Türkçe’ye çeviri yapan serbest altyazı çevirmenlerinin tabu dil söz konusu olduğunda kullandıkları çeviri stratejilerine ve yarattıkları pragmatik etkiye genel bir bakış sunmaktadır. Çalışma olgusu aynı zamanda baskıcı koşullar altında çevirmenin performatifliği yoluyla erek kültürde anlamların nasıl yaratıldığına ilişkin bir fikir de verebilir.


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APA

Alan, C. (2024). Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*. Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies, 0(21), 150-163. https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761


AMA

Alan C. Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*. Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies. 2024;0(21):150-163. https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761


ABNT

Alan, C. Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*. Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies, [Publisher Location], v. 0, n. 21, p. 150-163, 2024.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Alan, Cihan,. 2024. “Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*.” Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies 0, no. 21: 150-163. https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761


Chicago: Humanities Style

Alan, Cihan,. Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*.” Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies 0, no. 21 (Dec. 2024): 150-163. https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761


Harvard: Australian Style

Alan, C 2024, 'Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*', Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies, vol. 0, no. 21, pp. 150-163, viewed 22 Dec. 2024, https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Alan, C. (2024) ‘Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*’, Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies, 0(21), pp. 150-163. https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761 (22 Dec. 2024).


MLA

Alan, Cihan,. Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*.” Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies, vol. 0, no. 21, 2024, pp. 150-163. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761


Vancouver

Alan C. Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*. Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies [Internet]. 22 Dec. 2024 [cited 22 Dec. 2024];0(21):150-163. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761 doi: 10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761


ISNAD

Alan, Cihan. Censoring or Queering? TV-Subtitling of South Park in Türkiye*”. Istanbul University Journal of Translation Studies 0/21 (Dec. 2024): 150-163. https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2024.1552761



TIMELINE


Submitted19.09.2024
Accepted23.10.2024
Published Online18.12.2024

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