The role of translation in Turkish feminist theatre: the case of Theatre Painted Bird as an agent of feminist translation

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This article seeks to explore the position of Jale Karabekir as an agent of feminist translation in the field of Turkish theatre. Based on a sociological field analysis as developed by Pierre Bourdieu, this study aims to delineate the heterodoxic practices of Karabekir’s Theatre Painted Bird, which transforms the Turkish theatre’s male-dominated doxa through interlingual, intralingual, and intersemiotic translations, along with indigenous texts. Investigating the tension between the alternative theatres and the field of power in Türkiye, the study focuses on the extratextual discourse of Karabekir to highlight how her theatre collective ventures to maintain the relative autonomy of the theatre field by promoting a collaborative feminist struggle. Ultimately, the study elucidates that Karabekir’s importation of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed as a method of subversion helps her recover unforgotten female voices and enables her to mobilize resistance and produce commentaries to foster feminist solidarity in Türkiye.