Examining readers’ perceptions of translations: The case of Stephen King’s works in Turkish

Abstract

Known as the master of horror with more than sixty novels, Stephen King’s works have been translated into Turkish since 1970’s and published mainly by Altın Kitaplar Publishing House. His works, frequently being among the best-sellers, have been retranslated into Turkish and reprinted countlessly with updated covers and labels such as “uncensored complete book†or “complete book†in the last years. Such instances mostly cause Turkish readers to question various publishing practices of the publisher from diverse perspectives and discuss particularly the concepts of “retranslationâ€, “reprintâ€, “revisionâ€, “censorship†and “cuttingâ€. This study aims to examine readers’ reception and perceptions of above-referred concepts made itself evident lately regarding Turkish translations of King’s works. In this sense, it benefits from online data such as readers’ blogs and discussion forums in which they share a plethora of comments and make detailed discussions by tracing the links among King’s translations. The study concludes that readers largely face with a “confusion†as a result of diverse publishing practices of the publisher such as reducing the books, publishing “un/complete†texts or labelling translations divergently. Moreover, it reveals that the decisions taken in the publishing processes are usually market-driven but today’s readers as active agents are more conscious and critical of the translations offered them urging publishers to take decisions particularly on the grounds of completeness and high quality in translation practices.