Bilingual Author-Translator Nedim Gürsel’s Translation of Jorge Semprun’s Büyük Yolculuk as An Example of the Interaction Between Author and Translator Identities

Abstract

“Bilingualism” can be defined as a person’s ability to speak and be proficient in two languages. Being bilingual also entails having a dual identity. Bilingualism is a prerequisite for “translation”, which is defined as the act of transferring a text from one language to another. When we examine bilingualism in terms of bilingual writers who stand out with their writing activities, it is possible to say that there is an interaction between authorship and translation activity. Nedim Gürsel, who has been living in Paris since 1971 and taught Turkish literature courses at Sorbonne University and Inalco until 2019 and worked as the head of research on Turkish literature at CNRS, writes works in various literary genres such as novels, biographies, travel articles, poetry, translation, and academic articles. Gürsel, who publishes his fictional works in Turkish, defines himself as a writer who writes in Turkish rather than a Francophone, thus revealing his linguistic identity. Gürsel, whose works have been translated into many languages, states that in the French translations of his works, he communicates with his translator and makes necessary warnings and suggestions in order to avoid confusion in the meaning. In this study, the interaction between literary work and literary translation will be revealed with reference to French-Turkish bilingual writer-translator Nedim Gürsel’s 1977 translation of Spanish-French bilingual writer Jorge Semprun’s Le Grand voyage under the title Büyük Yolculuk. This study aims to reveal the interactions between the phenomenon of bilingualism and translation activity with reference to bilingual writer-translator Nedim Gürsel and to discuss this connection in a theoretical dimension. In addition, the stylistic interactions between the works written and translated by Nedim Gürsel, who is a writer-translator, will be examined and the effects of bilingualism on authorship will be revealed.