Greek fiction translated into Turkish: 1990-2006

Abstract

The present study that covers the period of seventeen years, from 1990 until the end of 2006, focuses on the dynamics of fiction translations from Greek into Turkish from the point of view of translators, publishers or their editors and reviewers. Following Israeli literary-cultural theorist Itamar Even-Zohar’s “polysystem theory,” the corpus of translations is considered as belonging to the “system” of translated Greek fiction, a system which is in a dynamic interrelationship with the Turkish literary polysystem. However, this corpus of translations cannot be thought without its creators, i.e. the intercultural “agents of transfer,” that is, translators and publishers/editors. Since, where translators and publishers/editors are concerned, one can hardly have access to sources written directly from the agents themselves, I have made use of interviews to provide data for my research. Consequently, my study is based on the interviews I held with nine translators (Panayot Abacı, Aristoteli Çokonas, Kriton Dinçmen, ro Kaplangı, Herkül Millas, Müfide Pekin, Sema Sandalcı, Kosta Sarıoglu, Ahmet Yorulmaz) and seven publishers or their editors (Belge, Can, Dogan, letisim, Inkılap, Literatür, Pencere). The analysis of the data provided in the interviews with the agents of transfer, the paratextual characteristics of some of the Turkish translations and the data obtained from written reviews have helped me view the relationship between the dynamics in this field and the corpus of translated Greek fiction from literary, social, political and ideological perspectives.