Page or Stage? A Comparative Study on the Two Turkish Versions of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest

Abstract

Translation of theatre texts differs from other kinds of translations in certain ways. In translation, dramatic works can be treated either as texts to be read or as texts that can readily be turned into scripts for theatrical performance. Within this context, this study aims to compare and contrast the Turkish versions of Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest produced by two translators -Murat Erşen (Ciddi Olmanın Önemi) and Can Yücel (Maksat Samimiyet)- within the framework of the key concepts of drama: readability, speakability, and performability. In this article, extracts selected from the original play and its two translations have been analyzed in the light of Susan Bassnett's strategies of theatre translation. Especially, two of the five strategies proposed -translation for the printed page and translation for stage- form the basis of this study. A comparative analysis of the excerpts has demonstrated that Murat Erşen generally adopted a source-oriented approach while Can Yücel favored a target-oriented translation In fact, Erşen’s translation looks as if it was intended to be read, whereas Yücel’s translation lends itself better to stage performance.