Reflections of language use as a mask in literary translation: An analysis of a bilingual author/translator

This thesis will examine how language, which influences the way we perceive the world, has the power to create meaning, occupies an important place in the construction of identities of societies and individuals, and also serves the function of conveying meaning, can be used as a mask behind which an author/translator can hide, through an example of "self-translation." In this regard, possible reasons underlying the author/translator's tendency to hide behind the language, and the cultural, social, and psychological effects of this tendency on how the author/translator and translator express themselves will be discussed within the framework of translation studies. Furthermore, the changes that the language undergoes in both translation processes and the possible reasons for these changes will be identified. Based on Hans J. Vermeer's Skopos theory, which emphasizes that every act of translation has a purpose and that the purpose of each translation is unique to its own requirements, this thesis will conduct a translation studies-focused analysis based on the concept of "self-translation" in terms of the author/translator translating themselves in line with their changing writing purposes. The source text, The Idiot (2018), written by Elif Batuman as a "self-translation," and its Turkish translation, Budala (2023), translated by Hande Dönmez, will be compared and evaluated to identify the translation strategies employed as a result of the translator's decisions in both translations. In this context, the ways in which language is used as a mask, the benefits of being bilingual and bicultural for the author/ translator, the relationship between language and culture and its reflections to the translation texts, how the author -as a bilingual author/translator- builds a new identity for themselves in a foreign culture through "self-translation" in order to create an existence, and the translator's decisions applied in the source and target texts in line with the translation purposes will be examined and interpreted through examples.