Bilingualism and self-translation in the prose of Samuel Beckett and Elif Şafak

Abstract

This study is concerned with two bilingual authors, Samuel Beckett and Elif Şafak and their respective co/self-translation practices. It focuses on four case studies: Beckett’s Premier Amour (1970) / First Love (1973) and Company (1980) / Compagnie (1980), alongside Şafak’s Bit Palas (2002) / The Flea Palace (2004) and Honour (2012) / İskender (2011). By appointing (1) native language fiction and (2) its self-translation and (3) second language fiction and (4) its native reproduction as case studies, this thesis shows the inner workings of the bilingual œuvre. This study employs an interdisciplinary methodology to assess the shifts and ruptures in the literary style, narrative flow and spatio- temporal elements across self-translation, as well as as the domestication and/ or foreignisation of sociocultural motifs in consideration of the integrity of the fictive universe. By comparing two authors-translators with different linguistic and cultural configurations, this study contributes to the growing body of research on bilingualism and self-translation, which lacked a comparatist analysis on an East-West hybrid text alongside a West-West self-translation. However, this research found that despite the different power dynamics imposed on Beckett and Şafak, the major discrepancies were not consequences of such implications but were driven by authorial intervention. Both authors are also shown to modify substantially more in self-translations into their respective native languages, while also employing a heightened level of emotivity. Beckett’s bilingual texts do not contradict each other, however Şafak’s ‘rewriting’ at times produces paradoxical narratives. Self-translation is bound by both poetics and politics. Beckett is mostly concerned with the former, whereas the latter has more impact in Şafak’s case.