Multiple-entry visa to travelling theory: Retranslations of literary and cultural theories

The article questions certain assumptions about retranslation which prevail rather unchallenged in Translation Studies, and discusses the terminological issues involved in retranslating theoretical texts. By presenting examples from two case studies, namely the reception of Roland Barthes’s work in Turkey and of Hélène Cixous’s work in Anglo-America, it examines the reasons underlying the abundance vs. rarity of retranslations in each case, respectively. Throughout the article, I contend that the factors of dominance, elasticity, tolerance, and power of the source and receiving systems involved determine whether travelling theory will be granted a multiple-entry visa to literary and cultural systems through retranslation.