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Abstract
This chapter explores the responses of nonprofessional readers to the many retranslations of Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Turkey. Focusing on responses by readers posted on four online platforms, it argues for the importance of incorporating reception data to create a 360-degree view of retranslation, both as text and social practice. Thematic analysis is the main methodology used in the analysis of 864 units of discourse selected out of a corpus of 13,702 comments, accompanied by a coding process and the identification of themes and subthemes. The four main themes and numerous subthemes that have emerged out of the initial analysis are used to offer a glimpse of the complexities behind reading and talking about retranslations. Responses by readers to Turkish translations of Le Petit Prince demonstrate that retranslations have an existence beyond their textual and material features and need to be considered as a social phenomenon, as a token of friendly or romantic exchange, an emotional investment, or an indication of one’s symbolic capital, among others.