Söylem Journal of Philology

Abstract

Literary texts reflect the cultural values and norms of the culture they are produced in. Various categorizations have been proposed as to the classification of culture specific items already available in a wide spectrum in literary texts. Religious signs turn out to be among the common culture specific items in those categorizations. In this study, the contexts with religious signs in the novel titled Kırmızı Saçlı Kadın by Orhan Pamuk are determined. The signs in these contexts are found to refer to the teachings in holy books, hadith, religious rituals and religious discourse. The translations of these contexts and particular signs are evaluated based on “Systematics of Designification in Translation” proposed by Öztürk Kasar (2021). The meaning transformations resulting from designificative tendencies identified in translation of religious signs are discussed in relation to their effects on translator decisions. As a result, it is suggested that the meaning transformations resulting from the application of the relevant translation strategies in translation of religious signs as culture specific items in literary texts could be minimized with a thorough command of “Systematics of Designification in Translation” by literary translators.