Big business of plagiarism under the guise of (re)translation The case of Turkey

Abstract

Taking Turkey's case as a basis, the current study focuses on the retranslation practice with an aim to discuss plagiaristic forms of retranslation which may create serious repercussions in the field of translation such as violating translators' copyrights, complicating the issue of translator's voice, producing defective cultural artifacts and affecting culture in general negatively. The study tries to outline and exemplify commonly-accepted impetuses for retranslation and inquire the validity of the rationale for the retranslations with a particular focus on Turkey. For our analysis, we used a total of 40 classical books distributed by a national newspaper as a promotional campaign. Following a brief discussion on voice in translation, an overview of publishing and retranslation practices in Turkey; this study presents guidelines for a more comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of plagiarism in retranslation and translation in general. The analyses of both qualitative and quantitative data derived from the sample of classical books showed that the books were just reproduction rather than retranslation or translation at all. The article concludes with a discussion on the possible impact of fake retranslations on translation practice and culture in general and calls for further empirical studies to prevent plagiarism in translation.