Translating the linguistic labyrinth: Analysing the Turkish translations of James Joyce's Ulysses in the light of Toury's reach-oriented theory

This study analyses three different Turkish translations of James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses, regarded as the most important novel of the twentieth century, within the framework of Toury's target-oriented theory. The novel, which shaped modernism and has been translated into many different languages since the day it was written, draws attention with its stream-of-consciousness technique and formalism. Considering Joyce's command of different languages, the unique words he invented, his experimental use of language and the motifs he included in his novel, it is assumed that the translation results will be quite different. Within the scope of the study, the translations of the novel by Nevzat Erkmen (1996), Armağan Ekici (2012) and Fuat Sevimay (2019) were analysed. The aim of the study is to determine which pole the translators stand close to between source and target culture norms in the translation of 45 samples selected from each translation in line with Gideon Toury's Reach-Oriented Theory. Toury (2012) considers translation close to source culture norms as "adequate", while translation close to target culture norms as "acceptable". Nabokov's (2023) view on Joyce's style was decisive in the selection of 45 examples. The samples were analysed comparatively and as a result of these translation analyses, it was seen that Fuat Sevimay made the most target-oriented translation, Erkmen was less close to the target norms than Sevimay, but still presented a target-oriented translation. On the other hand, it was concluded that Ekici exhibited rather similar behaviours in terms of prioritising the norms of the source culture and the target culture, but still adhered to the target norms more.