Queer translation of non-literary texts as activism in Turkey

Abstract

This dissertation explores the role of translation and translators in queer scholarship and activism in Turkey through analysis of the translated non-literary queer texts, terminological discussions in Kaos GL magazine (1994-2022), and the first-hand accounts of the activist translators from Kaos GL and Kaos Q+ academic journal (2014-2022). In the early 1990s, non-literary texts, particularly translations, served as a tool to bring people with non-normative sexualities together, motivate them for social change, transfer and produce knowledge on queer activism and politics. In the 2000s, translation of queer texts flourished, and this trend has been followed by several publishing houses, special issues of journals, and academia. However, this research has revealed that in this massive knowledge transfer, production, and circulation, the role of translation and translators is completely ignored not only in the activist context but also in queer politics. In this scope, the present study intends to fill the lacuna in the literature converging translation, queer and activism in the Turkish context. Critically analyzing the interventions in translations performed by the activist translators and the terminological and theoretical discussions, this dissertation asserts that the activist translators resist and subvert the hegemony of the public narrative oppressing, marginalizing, and discriminating people with nonnormative sexualities by constructing a counter-narrative. This dissertation also manifests the agency of translation in the formation of a non- literary queer literature in Turkish, which thereby led to the emergence of a conceptual narrative: Queer in academia.