Humour as a Political Tool: Translating Stories from Sherman Alexie's Ten Little Indians into Turkish

Abstract

Sherman Alexie's work revolves around Native Americans—Native Americans who deal with problems such as poverty, alcoholism, transgenerational trauma, modern life, ethnic stereotyping, and institutionalized racism. His voice is thought-provoking, poignant, destabilizing, and also, absolutely funny. His unique approach to heavy political matters offers us a different way of resistance in which people laugh through their tears and maybe change how they react to the issues surrounding themselves. In this thesis, I offer an analysis of who Sherman Alexie is as an author in the United States. I also look into his importance for Turkey in terms of our issues of racism and our understanding of political humour, in hopes of influencing other destabilizing works through his translations. Later, I discuss how he is portrayed in the Turkish literary system by examining two of his translated books, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (Çılgın Atı Düşlemek) and Reservation Blues (Kızılderiliye Yer Yok), through Lawrence Venuti's views on the foreignization and domestication methods in The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. Subsequently, I present my translation of "Lawyer's League", "Can I Get a Witness?", "Do Not Go Gentle" and "Flight Patterns" from Ten Little Indians as an alternative translation method. Finally, I analyse the foreignization method in relation to translating Sherman Alexie, before explaining my translation choices.