A new scene in literary translation: Using artlang for transcreating imagined languages in fantastic literature

In translation studies, literary translation has always caused many criticisms and debates since it requires creativity. Some scholars think that literary works such as poems should only be translated by poets. On the other hand, some think that such works shouldn't or can't be translated. If or when a literary work is translated, then another problem arises: translator's visibility. Fantastic literature is one of the oldest genres in the world. Epic of Gilgamesh and King Arthur's story are one of the oldest examples for fantastic literature. Since this genre gained more popularity with Clive Staples Lewis and George MacDonald's works, and J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, creative elements in those works have also piqued interest. One of the reasons that make fantastic literature's discourse and genre more unique and special is the usage of imagined languages. Since fantastic literature is supposed to have supernatural and / or strange elements to it, these can be a sociolect that is used by a group of beings, or an idiolect that is used by a being; but it also can be a completely new language. In recent years, people started to create artlangs (short for artistic language). This is a language created for artistic or aesthetic reasons, whether to stand on its own merits or to be used in fiction (library.conlang.org). The artlangs that are used in fantastic literature have become quite popular among the fans of the works. While translating works of fantastic literature, like authors, translators use their creativity as well to create a coherent world in the TL. Also, artlang translation may require the same amount of creativity since its birthplace is pure creativity that is shaped by some set of rules. Thus, while translating and / or transcreating artlangs; coherency, the role and characteristics of the language, translators' background, their creativity's nature and borders caused by varying reasons (such as author's intention or commissioner's rules), etc. should be considered too. This thesis aims to analyse artlangs (such as Sindarin and Quenya in Lord of the Rings which were created by J. R. R. Tolkien, Klingon in Star Trek which was created by Marc Okrand, Dothraki, and Valyrian in Game of Thrones which were created by David J. Peterson and George R. R. Martin) and their English and Turkish translations through transcreation. In this thesis, a descriptive method is used to analyse J. R. R. Tolkien's Sindarin and Quenya, George R. R. Martin's Valyrian and Dothraki and their English and Turkish translations in terms of translator's autonomy, creativity, visibility, foreignization / domestication. Key Words: Literary Translation, Artlang, Fantastic Literature, Transcreation, Visibility, Foreignization, Domestication