Alien phenomenology and difficulties of method of alienation in translation studies

In translation studies, despite the fact that various facets of the concept of 'alien' and the 'method of alienation' had been previously defined, a clear-cut definition was not provided for its distinctive features. Xenology concerns itself more with discovering how the question of 'alienation' had emerged than with seeking to reveal what it really is. While the question of 'alienation' can be studied with xenological investigations in translation studies, an implicit definition is suggested for the existence of the 'alien'. Thus, xenology only offers to define an 'implicit alienness' through the lens of translation theory. Whereas xenology raises questions over the concept of 'alien', 'alien phenomenology' introduces a number of solutions as to how to deal with this question. Translators can not be expected to perform the act of translation from the source language into the target language, without raising their awareness regarding 'alien experience'. Alien phenomenology can, in a sense, be assumed to have developed from alien experience. Attempts to come up with a refined definition of 'alien' and 'translation' will be futile. Bernard Waldenfels, the founder of the 'phenomenology of alien', introduced a three part classification for 'alienness' in order to define its limits. When Waldenfels's 'alienness degrees' are incorporated into translation studies, 'everyday alienness' reveals itself in text types, resources that translators resort to, as well as their notes for the translation performance. While the textually defined linguistic and cultural differences are cited as structural/cultural alienness, radical alienness is referred to as a variety of challenges facing the translators due to temporal, spacial, cultural ve linguistic distance. Among the phenomena that represent alienation in translation task are metaphors, linguistic variations, cultural symbols, and puns. This study seeks to highlight that 'alienness' not only exists in the method of alienation, but also in translation studies as a whole and that the place and role of the concept of 'alien' can be valued by making use of the studies of alien phenomenology and xenology in translation studies.