Untangling the Multimodal Translational Chain: Wir sind doch nicht vom Mond and Hamburgdaki Küçük İstanbul

This study examines Wir sind doch nicht vom Mond by Ruth Herrmann and Hamburgdaki Küçük İstanbul by Ruth Hermann and Zeyyat Selimoğlu as a translational product from a multidimensional perspective based on the social semiotics. It also critically engages with how differential voices of numerous agents, including author, photographer, translator, and child protagonists, conceptualized as translatorial voice, are reflected along the multilayered transfer processes in the texts in a contrastive manner. Defining translation as not only a linguistic activity but also a multidimensional practice with the insights from the social semiotics, this study focuses on the translational features characterizing the narratives in both languages. The multidimensional stance provides a holistic perspective into the transfer processes shaping the narratives in their host and receiving context. It is thus argued that the deconstruction of the source and target texts as traditionally conceived entities contributes to explore distinct transfer processes at work in the redesignation of the texts, which constitutes translational chains beyond their immediate environments. It is also discussed that the concept of voice(s) might be broadened to discuss the plurality of the voices of fictional and non-fictional agents explicitly or implicitly shaping the narrative, thereby translating agents and their translatorial voices emerges as distinct and subject positions to be explored.