Modernity Retranslated: Nationalism as a Tool of Culture in a Complex Polysystem

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to problematize comparative modelling of descriptive retranslation research with respect to nationalism in a polysystem. In this light, it starts by questioning a tool of analysis, i.e., ‘non-(re)translation,’ that studies resort to as a nominal concept yet underneath imply opposing views of philosophy of language. This foregrounding of the concept requires meticulous contextualization in order to deconstruct the systemic stratification of a specific period. The corpus comprises four translations (plus a reprint) of the prominent Ottoman and Turkish historian Uriel Heyd’s Foundations of Turkish Nationalism: The Life and Teachings of Ziya Gökalp , originally published in 1954. Given that the initial translation in the corpus appeared shortly before the 1980 coup d’état in Turkey and the most recent translation was published soon after the induction of the democratic initiative process in 2009, the descriptive study analyzes the translation norms and strategies of each translated work and looks for an answer as to whether the initial norm corresponds to translation policy and how it governs the textual-linguistic norms in turn. In addition, the empirical analysis serves the purpose of theorizing the workings of national category in a complex polysystem. Thus, instrumentalization of a ‘national’ symbol can elucidate the manner in which ideational labor is deployed to produce energy in heterogeneity. Following the theoretical and empirical analyses, questions with regards to future comparative analysis and modelling are raised.