Translation analysis of Heinrich von Kleist's novella Die Marquise von O..., a Turkish retranslation by Iris Kantemir

Abstract

Retranslations of literary works have become a popular topic in Translations Studies. This article aims to contribute to ongoing discussions with a case study of the well-known novella Die Marquise von O. (1808), written by the German writer Heinrich von Kleist. A previous study examined the Turkish translations by M. Togar (1952), A. Yalniz (1992) and A. Talun Ince (2004) with regard to their relationship to the source text. This article focuses on a new retranslation of the novella, Markiz O., translated by I. Kantemir in 2010 to elaborate on the same issue. The translation analysis demonstrates that this retranslation does not go beyond being a 'different' attempt to convey Kleist's specific language and prosaic style of the original.