Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’s translations (1908-1910): The making of a Westernist and materialist “culture repertoire” in a “resistant” Ottoman context

Abstract

This study aims to analyze Abdullah Cevdet’s translations published within the first three years (1908-1910) of the Second Constitutional period by taking “culture-planning” aspects of them as its focal point. The present thesis is the first academic attempt to reflect specifically on the Turkish translation history of the Second Constitutional period within a modern paradigm of translation studies. In this research, Abdullah Cevdet’s translations are examined from a systemic point of view, and are associated with the dynamics in the Ottoman cultural polysystem. This study shows that Abdullah Cevdet aimed to introduce new literary and cultural “options” into the Ottoman “culture repertoire” with his translation of Shakespeare’s plays. From a systemic point of view, this research connects Abdullah Cevdet’s translation of the plays with his ideological program. On another level, it points to a new orientation at the turn of the twentieth century observed in Abdullah Cevdet’s Shakspeare translations regarding the concept and practice of translation. Abdullah Cevdet’s non-literary translations published in the relevant time span are also contextualized in this research in terms of the significant role they played in Abdullah Cevdet’s ideological program. Another significant discussion in this study is related to why and how the materialist and anti-Islamic “options” Abdullah Cevdet inculcated with his controversial Tarih-i İslamiyet encountered large-scale active “resistance” by conservative Ottomans.