From Issue Editor

Abstract

The special dossier of the seventh issue of Nesir: Journal of Literary Studies draws inspiration from the “fictional turn” in translation studies proposed by Else Vieira in the mid-1990s to highlight the value of fiction as a credible source for exploring and reflecting on translation and other interpretive processes^[1]. Vieira’s work on the role of translation-related themes in the fiction of Brazilian and Latin American authors was further developed by other scholars, including Edwin Gentzler^[2] and Rosemary Arrojo.^[3] In her Fictional Translators: Rethinking Translation Through Literature (2018), Arrojo observes that as translation studies grew as an interdisciplinary field and translator characters became more prominent in world literature around the turn of the millennium, academic interest in the portrayal of translators and translation-related themes in fiction “began to produce an abundance of critical material elsewhere as well.”^[4] The articles featured in Nesir’s current issue are a testament to the growing body of scholarship that explores translator characters from various literary traditions, with a particular focus on Turkish literature in this case.

Over the last three decades since the proposal of the fictional turn, whose main objective was “to integrate reflections on translation theory found in works of fiction,”^[5] several academic conferences have been organized on the topic, with proceedings from some of these conferences later becoming edited volumes. One such conference was held at the University of Vienna’s Centre for Translation Studies in 2011, resulting in an edited volume titled Transfiction: Research into the Realities of Translation Fiction (2014). In this collection, regarding the increased visibility of translator and interpreter characters in fiction (as well as in film), one of the editors, Klaus Kaindl, remarks: “Literature and film are never detached from society, but rather react to its developments, changes, and upheavals with their own methods and devices.”^{[6] [7]} Given the social and political potential of translation—particularly in contexts of migration, exile, and war—it’s no wonder that translators and interpreters often stand at the core of some of the most impactful and celebrated literary works and films.^[8]

Today, translation fiction (transfiction)—defined as “the introduction and (increased) use of translation-related phenomena in fiction”^[9] —has arguably established itself as a distinct genre, drawing scholars to explore a wide range of thematic areas. These often include comparing the portrayal of translators in fiction with reality, exploring the metaphorical function of translation in literature, examining the relationship between the original text and its translation, or between the author and the translator. Other areas of inquiry include the interplay between fictional and real translation practices, questions of fidelity versus infidelity, (un)translatability, (in)visibility, as well as uncovering the ideas, clichés, and stereotypes surrounding translators and interpreters in society. Frequently, several of these themes coexist in a single narrative, allowing many works to support various research questions and methodological approaches. The articles featured in Nesir’s current issue exemplify this observation by engaging with one or more of these topics, as they foster an interdisciplinary conversation between fields, particularly literary and translation studies.

The issue includes five research articles. Hilal Erkazancı Durmuş’s article, “From Polyphony to “Dual Authorship”: Transfictional Voices in Benden’iz James Joyce,” examines Benden’iz James Joyce [It is Me, James Joyce], a prime example of a transfictional novel written by Fuat Sevimay as a paratextual commentary on Joyce’s oeuvre. Durmuş draws our attention to the dialogic relationship Sevimay creates between the fictional author and translator in the novel, wherein they engage in conversations about various topics, including the translator’s decisions. As the translator of Joyce’s works into Turkish, Sevimay’s own translatorial persona, as Durmuş argues, shapes his narrative voice in the novel, facilitating a deeper exploration of theoretical concepts, such as the translator’s voice and Bakhtinian polyphony. Durmuş concludes her article with a compelling argument, suggesting that transfictional narratives crafted by translators should be seen as part of a translator’s archive, which constitutes an integral part of microhistorical research within translator studies.

Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar and Selin Erkul Yağcı’s article, “Divided Identities and Divided Selves: Fictional Translators in Turkish Literature,” examines the portrayal of translators and interpreters in Ottoman and contemporary Turkish literature, where they are often depicted as individuals experiencing identity crises and mental instability. This recurring theme reflects the complexities of translation and the anxieties surrounding cultural transformation, beginning with early Ottoman novels responding to Westernization. Contemporary works continue this trend, portraying translators grappling with identity conflicts and psychosis, shedding light on their role as figures navigating between cultures and languages. In addition to its compelling exploration of the link between madness and the translator’s identity, the article offers a comprehensive overview of scholarly research on translator and interpreter characters in Turkish literature, conducted by academics in Turkey.

 Eyüp Aygün Tayşir’s article “Mehmed Enisî (Yalkı) as a Late Ottoman an Early Republican Thinker and ‘Equality in People: God of Socialists’ as an Anti-Socialist Text,” explores the connections between the life, ideology, and literary preferences of Mehmed Enisî, a lesser-known Ottoman officer, writer, and translator who remained active during the early Republican period. Based on archival research, the article examines a 1924 anti-socialist literary work that Enisî translated from English into Ottoman Turkish. The study updates existing knowledge about Enisî’s life and works, highlighting his positivist views and his perception of socialism as a threat.

Ömercan Çetinkaya’s article, “Penâhî’s Poetry Miscellanea (National Library MS 06 Mil Yz A 4922) and Its Classification According to MESTAP,” is featured in this issue of Nesir as one of the research articles that, as in every issue, falls outside the purview of the dossier topic. The article offers new perspectives on the miscellanea (mecmua) genre through an analysis of the Penâhî Mecmuası, a miscellanea compiled in 1902 by Mustafa Müslim Ocak, known as Penâhî. Çetinkaya emphasizes the importance of identifying the compiler and the date of compilation, providing insights into the Sufi history, communities, and texts that shaped the work. Ultimately, the study aims to advance miscellanea research by offering an exemplary approach for future studies.

The other article that falls outside the purview of the dossier topic in Nesir’s current issue is Yasemin Yılmaz Yüksek’s “Exploring Unseen Violence in the Picture Books of Jeannie Baker,” which provides an ecocritical analysis of three works by the Australian visual artist Jeannie Baker: the wordless picture books Belonging and Window, and the illustrated book The Hidden Forest. Yüksek examines how Baker’s visual storytelling positions the reader as a witness to environmental changes driven by urbanization and human exploitation. She argues that through slow, subtle changes in the illustrations, Baker’s books encourage readers to reconsider the relationship between humans, nature, and nonhuman subjectivities.

The issue includes two translated articles. Atiye Gülfer Gündoğdu translates Hans-Georg Gadamer’s article “The Eminent Text and Its Truth” from German into Turkish. Originally presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Modern Language Association in Minneapolis in November 1978, Gadamer’s article restores the esteem of literary texts that had been discredited as detached from truth and dismissed merely as “fiction.” Gadamer re-examines the relationship between literary texts and truth, focusing on the unique characteristics embedded in the very fabric of literary works.

Zeynep Kürük Erçetin translates her own article, “Halide Edib Adıvar: The Forgotten (Self) Translator Behind the Writer,” which was originally published in Turkish in a collected volume on women translators in Turkey, Kelimelerin Kıyısında: Türkiye’de Kadın Çevirmenler, reviewed by Duygu Akın Tekgül in this issue.^[10] Erçetin’s piece offers a microhistorical case study that situates the translator’s role within the broader context of the nation’s cultural and political history. Through an in-depth examination, she explores the translatorial agency of Halide Edib Adıvar (1884–1964), a prominent novelist and key figure in the women’s emancipation movement in Turkey, focusing on her self-translated novels and autobiographies.

The issue includes three book reviews. The first is Murat Cankara’s review of Şehnaz Şişmanoğlu Şimşek’s İki Kilise Arasında Binamaz: Karamanlıca Edebiyatta Dil, Kimlik ve Yeniden-Yazım (2024). Cankara highlights Şimşek’s interdisciplinary approach to Evangelinos Misailidis’ novel Temaşa-i Dünya ve Cefakâr u Cefakeş, as Şimşek challenges the prevailing view that Misailidis’ work is merely an unoriginal copy of Grigoris Paleologos’ O Polipathis. The second review is by Saliha Samanlı, who examines Alphan Akgül’s Kim Egemen Olabilir Yazgısına: Türk Romanında Trajedi ve Özgür İrade (2021). As Samanlı indicates, Akgül’s study delves into the use of tragedy in early Turkish novels as a deliberate narrative choice, especially in relation to the conflict between traditional and modern values. The third is Duygu Akın Tekgül’s review of Kelimelerin Kıyısında: Türkiye’de Kadın Çevirmenler (2019), a book that appeals to both academics and general readers. In her review, Tekgül draws attention to the book’s potential to inspire further research, particularly in areas such as translation technology and the role of emotions in translation and interpreting explored through the lens of translation and gender.

Lastly, the issue features two primary sources unearthed from the archives by researchers. The first is “A Letter (!) from the Former Prime Minister: Hüseyin Rauf’s (Orbay) Assessments on Matters of the Country,” brought to light and analyzed by Selim Ahmetoğlu. The second, titled “Documents on Detrimental or Prohibited Publications in the XIX-XXth Century Ottoman Empire: The Epic of Abu Muslim,” is presented by Ali Kozan. Both analyses aim to offer original contributions to the historical understanding of the periods and figures featured in the respective documents.

As with every issue, we would like to express our gratitude to our editorial and advisory board members, field editors, authors, and reviewers who contributed to the preparation of this edition. Lastly, we would like to remind you that Nesir will devote its eighth issue, to be released in April 2025, to the dossier topic “Conceptual Approaches to Ottoman-Turkish Literature in the 19th Century,” under the editorship of Özen Nergis Seçkin Dolcerocca. Qualified and original works from literary researchers on this topic will be accepted until March 1, 2025.

[1]                     Rosemary Arrojo, Fictional Translators: Rethinking Translation Through Literature (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), 2.

[2]                     Edwin Gentzler, Translation and Identity in the Americas: New Directions in Translation Theory (New York: Routledge, 2008).

[3]                     Denise Kripper’s recent book, Narratives of Mistranslation: Fictional Translators in Latin American Literature (2023), stands as a notable addition to the existing body of scholarly works focusing on translator characters in Latin American literature.

[4]                     Arrojo, 2.

[5]                     Klaus Kaindl, “Going fictional! Translators and Interpreters in literature and film: An introduction,” Transfiction: Research into the Realities of Translation Fiction, ed. Klaus Kaindl and Karlheinz Spitzl (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2014), 11.

[6]                     Ibid, 4.

[7]                     For an overview of the development of research on the “fictional turn” over the decades, see Klaus Kaindl’s introduction to Transfiction, where he explores various approaches to using fiction and film that feature translator and interpreter characters as a foundation for theoretical exploration. Transfiction and Bordering Approaches to Theorizing Translation: Essays in Dialogue with the Work of Rosemary Arrojo (2023) also deserves attention as a recent contribution to the field.

[8]                     Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 2006 film Babel and Le Traducteur (2021) by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf, along with the novels Fugitive Pieces (1996) by Anne Michaels and The Translator (1999) by Leila Aboulela, are noteworthy recommendations for interested readers and viewers.

[9]                     Kaindl, 4.

[10]                   Kelimelerin Kıyısında: Türkiye’de Kadın Çevirmenler, edited by Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar (İstanbul: İthaki Yayınları, 2019).