The Contribution of the Novels Translated into Ottoman Turkish Between the Ottoman Tanzimat Period and the Alphabet Reform to the Ottoman/Turkish Cultural Heritage: An Overview of the Prefaces with a Focus on National Morals and Customs

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the effects of the Ottoman/Turkish morals and customs on the selection of novels to be translated from Western languages into Ottoman Turkish and the translation strategies deployed by the translators between the Tanzimat Period and the Alphabet Reform in witness of the prefaces written by the translators and publishers of the period. The novel, as a literary genre, entered the Ottoman/Turkish literary system in the Tanzimat Period and a high number of translated and original novels were produced in the historical period examined in the present study. Conformity of the content of the works with the Ottoman/Turkish morals and customs emerges as a major issue in the context of the translations in question. In terms of preliminary and operational norms (Gideon Toury), translators and/or publishers either viewed the content-related conformity as a criterion in selecting works for translation or they decided to change or omit the parts in the source texts that they considered inappropriate for the Ottoman/Turkish “national morals” (âdât-ı millî) and Islamic morals. While some translators were sensitive about the Turkish language, some others were specifically concerned about the material and spiritual characteristics of the Turks and the Turkish authors. In the present study, the forewords and afterwords by the translators and publishers will be discussed in relation to the memoirs of the translators and publishers. Moreover, the emphasis on the “idea of nationality” (millîlik) and the “cultural repertoire” (Itamar Even-Zohar) desired to be created accordingly by the translators and publishers will be examined via the analysis of a selected corpus of forewords and afterwords. The results of the examination will be evaluated in the context of contemporary theories of translation with the aim of shedding light on the function of the activity of translation -defined as a means of intercultural communication and interaction- in the context of Turkish nationalism in the relevant historical period.