REFRAMING ANTI-COMMUNIST NARRATIVES THROUGH TRANSLATION: THE CASE OF THE GREAT GLOBE ITSELF (1946) AND ASIL BÜYÜK DÜNYA (1947)

Translation is considered a strategic site where political and ideological narratives are negotiated, questioned and reconstructed. Particularly in contexts of ideological polarization, translated texts often serve as vehicles for legitimizing specific movements or marginalizing opposing ones. Over the last few decades, it has become clear that translation is not an impartial or objective act; rather it inevitably involves intervention and manipulation, deeply influenced by the ideology of agents such as translators and publishers. Within this framework, the present study identifies Nebioğlu Publishing House as a prominent institutional agent that systematically produced translations to reinforce the anti-communist ideology that became hegemonic during the Cold War. To illustrate the mechanisms of this ideological mediation, the article offers a comparative case study of William C. Bullitt’s The Great Globe Itself (1946) and its Turkish translation Asıl Büyük Dünya (1947). The analysis employs the methodological tools of textual reframing pertaining to Mona Baker’s narrative theory (2006) and Gerard Genette’s paratextual analysis (1997). Moreover, by comparing the source and target texts, the study discusses how the publisher and translator actively intervened to reframe the source narratives. Ultimately, the findings highlight that translations are not merely products of linguistic transfer, but also potent instruments of ideological positioning; both publishers and translators act as active agents who rewrite the source text through specific ideological filters.