Saved by translation
-
Azade Seyhan
Abstract
In our age, translation has become a regulative and cosmopolitan modality of our experience of shifting borders and populations on the move. At the same time, however, the power issues involved in the politics of translation give rise to concerns about the economy of equitable exchange between dominant and minor languages and the vulnerability of the lesser language to misappropriation, domestication, and depletion in translation into a high status language. On the other hand, in the condition of exile, the translation of a canonical language into the lesser-known language of the country of exile can safeguard a banished intellectual culture. The sojourn of Nazi Germany’s academic exiles in Turkey (1933–45) bears witness not only to the survival and dissemination of a banished academic legacy in (Turkish) translation but also to an avant la lettre practice of interdisciplinary cultural studies.
Abstract
In our age, translation has become a regulative and cosmopolitan modality of our experience of shifting borders and populations on the move. At the same time, however, the power issues involved in the politics of translation give rise to concerns about the economy of equitable exchange between dominant and minor languages and the vulnerability of the lesser language to misappropriation, domestication, and depletion in translation into a high status language. On the other hand, in the condition of exile, the translation of a canonical language into the lesser-known language of the country of exile can safeguard a banished intellectual culture. The sojourn of Nazi Germany’s academic exiles in Turkey (1933–45) bears witness not only to the survival and dissemination of a banished academic legacy in (Turkish) translation but also to an avant la lettre practice of interdisciplinary cultural studies.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- In memoriam Elif Daldeniz Baysan xi
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Ottoman conceptions and practices of translation
- On the poetic practices of a “singularly uninventive people” and the anxiety of imitation 27
- Exploring Tercüman as a culture-bound concept in Islamic mysticism 53
- Ahmet Midhat’s Hulâsa-i Hümâyunnâme 73
-
Transition and transformation
- On the evolution of the interpreting profession in Turkey 89
- Saved by translation 107
- The “official” view on translation in Turkey 125
- Translation, imported western legal frameworks and insights from the Turkish world of patents 145
-
The republican revolutionary turn
- The Turkish language reform and intralingual translation 165
- John Dewey’s 1924 report on Turkish education 181
- Pseudotranslations of pseudo-scientific sex manuals in Turkey 199
- Censorship of “obscene” literary translations 219
- Ideological encounters 233
- An overview of Kurdish literature in Turkish 253
- The identity metonymics of translated Turkish fiction in English 273
- Notes on contributors 297
- Index 303
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- In memoriam Elif Daldeniz Baysan xi
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Ottoman conceptions and practices of translation
- On the poetic practices of a “singularly uninventive people” and the anxiety of imitation 27
- Exploring Tercüman as a culture-bound concept in Islamic mysticism 53
- Ahmet Midhat’s Hulâsa-i Hümâyunnâme 73
-
Transition and transformation
- On the evolution of the interpreting profession in Turkey 89
- Saved by translation 107
- The “official” view on translation in Turkey 125
- Translation, imported western legal frameworks and insights from the Turkish world of patents 145
-
The republican revolutionary turn
- The Turkish language reform and intralingual translation 165
- John Dewey’s 1924 report on Turkish education 181
- Pseudotranslations of pseudo-scientific sex manuals in Turkey 199
- Censorship of “obscene” literary translations 219
- Ideological encounters 233
- An overview of Kurdish literature in Turkish 253
- The identity metonymics of translated Turkish fiction in English 273
- Notes on contributors 297
- Index 303
