Dr. Abdullah Cevdet's Translations

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Dr. Abdullah Cevdet's Translations DR. ABDULLAH CEVDET’S TRANSLATIONS (1908-1910): THE MAKING OF A WESTERNIST AND MATERIALIST “CULTURE REPERTOIRE” IN A “RESISTANT” OTTOMAN CONTEXT SEVDA AYLUÇTARHAN BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY 2007 Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’s Translations (1908-1910): The Making of a Westernist and Materialist “Culture Repertoire” in a “Resistant” Ottoman Context Thesis submitted to the Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation Studies by Sevda Ayluçtarhan Boğaziçi University 2007 ii Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’s Translations (1908-1910): The Making of a Westernist and Materialist “Culture Repertoire” in a “Resistant” Ottoman Context The thesis of Sevda Ayluçtarhan has been approved by: Prof.Dr. Saliha Paker -------------------------------------------------------- (Thesis Advisor) Prof.Dr. Işın Bengi-Öner -------------------------------------------------------- Prof.Dr. Ethem Eldem ------------------------------------------------------ Assoc. Prof. Şehnaz Tahir-Gürçağlar -------------------------------------------------------- Asst. Prof. Cemal Demircioğlu ------------------------------------------------------- September 2007 iii Thesis Abstract Sevda ayluçtarhan, Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’s Translations (1908-1910): The Making of a Westernist and Materialist “Culture Repertoire” in a “Resistant” Ottoman Context 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. iv Tez Özeti Sevda ayluçtarhan, Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’in Çevirileri (1908-1910): “Muhalif” Bir Osmanlı bağlamında Batıcı ve Maddeci bir “Kültür Repertuvarının” Teşekkülü Bu çalışma Abdullah Cevdet’in İkinci Meşrutiyet döneminin ilk üç yılında (1908-1910) yayınlanmış edebi ve edebiyat-dışı çevirilerini “kültür planlaması” yönüyle odak noktasına koyarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu tez, Türk çeviri tarihinin özellikle İkinci Meşrutiyet dönemine, modern Çeviribilim paradigmasıyla ışık tutan ilk akademik girişimdir. Bu araştırmada Abdullah Cevdet’in çevirileri dizgesel bir bakış açısıyla incelenmiş ve Osmanlı kültürü çoğul-dizgesinin dinamikleriyle ilişkilendirilmiştir. Bu çalışma Abdullah Cevdet’in Shakespeare oyunlarından yaptığı çevirilerle Osmanlı kültür “repertuvarına” yeni edebi ve kültürel “seçenekler” getirmeyi amaçladığını ortaya koymaktadır. Dizgeci bir bakış açısıyla Abdullah Cevdet’in bu oyunlardan yaptığı çeviriler, onun ideolojik programıyla ilişkilendirilmiştir. Öte yandan, bu araştırma çeviri kavramı ve uygulamasında yirminci yüzyılın başında Abdullah Cevdet’in Shakespeare çevirilerinde gözlemlenen yeni bir yönelime işaret etmektedir. Bu araştırmada Abdullah Cevdet’in söz konusu dönemde yayınlanan edebiyat- dışı çevirileri de Abdullah Cevdet’in ideolojik programında oynadıkları büyük rol bağlamında ele alınmaktadır. Bu çalışmadaki bir diğer önemli mesele da Abdullah Cevdet’in tartışmalı çevirisi Tarih-i İslamiyet yoluyla telkin ettiği maddeci ve İslamiyet karşıtı “seçeneklerin” neden ve nasıl muhafazakâr Osmanlılar tarafından geniş çapta “aktif bir muhalefetle” karşılandığıdır. v Acknowledgements I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my advisor Professor Saliha Paker for her invaluable guidance and support during the entire course of this study and for the long hours she spent revising and editing my research. Her academic enthusiasm and the confidence she gave to me have always stimulated me to work harder. I also wish to thank Professor Edhem Eldem, Professor Işın Bengi-Öner, Assoc. Prof. Şehnaz Tahir- Gürçağlar and Assistant Professor Cemal Demircioğlu for kindly accepting to be members of the Examining Committee and for their insightful criticisms and suggestions. I also wish to express my gratitude to Professor Zehra Toska for her revising some of the quotations I transcribed into Modern Turkish. I am also grateful to Abdullah Cevdet’s daughter Gül Karlıdağ and the son of his grand-son Professor Taner Derbentli for joining in my thesis defence and for kindly and generously devoting their time to my questions about Abdullah Cevdet. I am also deeply grateful to Professor Şükrü Hanioğlu for seriously answering the questions in my e- mails. I would like to thank my friends Seyhan Bozkurt and Ekaterini Kayadelen for their support and friendship. Special thanks to my parents Emine Ayluçtarhan and Nurettin Ayluçtarhan on whose constant encouragement and love I have relied throughout my life. Lastly and most importantly, I dedicate this thesis to my husband Arif Ayluçtarhan who offered me emotional and motivational support all the way since the beginning of this research. vi CONTENTS Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................1 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY………………….22 Systemic Approaches and Their Implications for the Present Research……….22 Summary………………………………………………………………………..34 3. ABDULLAH CEVDET’S SHAKESPEARE TRANSLATIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR HIS CULTURE PLANNING…………………36 A. Cevdet’s Translation Policies………………………………………………..39 Directness of Translation………………………………………………………..48 Matricial and Textual-Linguistic Features of A. Cevdet’s Shakespeare Translations……………………………………………………………………..53 Critics’ Ideological Denial of the First Full Translations of Shakespeare’s Tragedies ……………………………………………………………………….82 Summary………………………………………………………………………..87 4. ABDULLAH CEVDET’S NON-LITERARY TRANSLATIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR HIS CULTURE-PLANNING ………………………...96 Some Preliminary Notes on A. Cevdet’s Non-literary Translations (1908-1910)……………………………………………………….99 A. Cevdet’s Non-literary Translations as Cultural Tools for Mobilizing and Modernizing Muslims…………………………………………………………104 Active Resistance against Dozy, Tarih-i İslamiyet and its Translator A. Cevdet………………………………………………………..133 A. Cevdet’s Culture Planning: “Success” or “Failure”? ...................................157 Summary………………………………………………………………………162 5. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………..171 APPENDICES................................................................................................................188 1. Detailed Information on A. Cevdet’s Translations Between 1908 and 1910……………………………………………………….188 2. Translator’s Preface (İfade-i Mütercim) in Jül Sezar Transcribed in Modern Turkish…………………………………………………………......189 3. Translator’s Preface (İfade-i Mütercim) in Tarih-i İslamiyet Transcribed in Modern Turkish……………………………………………………………..191 4. Translator’s Preface (İfade-i Mütercim) in İstibdad Transcribed in Modern Turkish……………………………………………………………..194 5. Translator’s Preface (İfade-i Mütercim) in İngiliz Kavmi Transcribed in Modern Turkish…………………………………………………………….199 6. A General Bibliography of Translated Literary and Nonliterary Works Published within the First Three Years of the Second Constitution (1908-1910)……………………………………………………...201 vii 7. Abdullah Cevdet REFERENCES...............................................................................................................222 viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The poet, a honey bee I carried Suns from the West to the East, and equals to paradise, and its river. I am wealth given to this land of poverty, and a bee drowned in its own honey.1 (Abdullah Cevdet: Karlıdağ’dan Ses [Voice from a Snowy Mountain] 1931). The present thesis dwells on Abdullah Cevdet’s (1869-1932) eight translations systematically published within the early years of the Second Constitutional period (1908-1910). It takes the ideological and “culture-planning” (Even-Zohar 2002a) aspect of these translations as its focal point. This study is unique as it is the first attempt to reflect specifically on the Turkish translation history of the Second Constitutional period within a modern paradigm of translation studies. My research could be seen as a continuation of the works of some researchers who contextualized both the Ottoman translation history of the pre-Constitutional period (see Paker 1986, 1991, 2002, 2006; Demircioğlu 2005, Bengi-Öner 1990, 1991), and the period beginning from the foundation of the Turkish Republic (Tahir-Gürçağlar 2001). Abdullah Cevdet was a medical doctor who is described
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