International Journal of Languages' Education and Teaching

Abstract

The translation has always been influenced by cultural events, religious beliefs and political ideologies. Therefore, almost in all
historical conditions, translators tend to rewrite what is acceptable from both social and personal angles. The translator conducts
a thorough study when deciding which cultural elements are important and how necessary it is to translate them into the target
language. In other words, considering the possible cultural implications of a translated text requires being aware of all these issues
and implementing the most appropriate translation strategy specific for each situation. When the cooperation between the culture
and society in which the translator lives in is considered, the rationale behind the censorship applied in the source text can be
understood. For translators, linguistic taboos impose major struggles and censorship of taboo language plays an important role
in the translation of taboo expressions. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this work is to discuss taboo, censorship and taboo
translation strategies through Stephen King’s famous novel Salem Lot (1975). In this context, two Turkish translations published
by different publishing houses at different times are analyzed in terms of strategies used by the translators, taking into account
the social, cultural and political conditions of the period. In the categorization of translation strategies, the classification carried
out by Keith Allan and Kate Burridge (2006), together with the classification conducted by Siobhan Brownlie (2007) has been
utilized for the theoretical framework of this paper.