The Institutional Translator's Image in Turkey

THE INSTITUTIONAL TRANSLATOR'S IMAGE IN TURKEY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS FROM THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE TO THE MODERN REPUBLIC SEMİH SARIGÜL BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY 2015 THE INSTITUTIONAL TRANSLATOR'S IMAGE IN TURKEY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS FROM THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE TO THE MODERN REPUBLIC 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 by Semih Sarıgül Boğaziçi University 2015 ABSTRACT The Institutional Translator's Image in Turkey: A Comparative Analysis from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Republic The present study aims to focus on the institutional translator's image from a historical perspective and examine this professional group's image in the eyes of the state from the fifteenth century Ottoman Empire to today's modern Republic of Turkey. This study argues that the institutional translator's high status in the Ottoman Empire did not continue in the Republican period because of the leading state officials' policy shift towards promoting literary translation. In order to explore the institutional translator's image, this study looked at the different ways in which the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey treated its institutional translators, and at whether they offered the institutional translator special rights and benefits or not. In this respect, we examined the institutional translator's salaries, paths to promotion, rights and privileges. The detailed analysis of historical data on these categories demonstrated that although the institutional translator built up a positive image due to the fact that the Ottoman Empire attached much importance to them, their image started to drop substantially in the early Republican period because of a reverse in the state policy. iv ÖZET Türkiye'deki Kurumsal Çevirmen İmgesi: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'ndan Modern Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'ne Karşılaştırmalı Analiz Bu çalışma, kurumsal çevirmen imgesine tarihsel bir bakış açısıyla odaklanarak bu meslek grubunun 15. yüzyılda Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'ndan modern Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'ne kadar devlet gözündeki imgesini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmanın temel iddiası, kurumsal çevirmenin Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'ndaki yüksek statüsünün Türkiye Cumhuriyeti döneminde devlet politikasının edebi çeviriyi öne çıkarmaya yönelik değişmesi nedeniyle devam etmediği yönündedir. Kurumsal çevirmen imgesini anlamak amacıyla, çalışmada Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin kurumsal çevirmene olan yaklaşımı ve bu meslek grubuna özel haklar ve faydalara sağlayıp sağlamadıkları incelenmiştir. Bu bağlamda, kurumsal çevirmene verilen maaş, sağlanan terfi imkânları, haklar ve ayrıcalıklar gözden geçirilmiştir. Bu ölçütlere göre yapılan tarihsel veri analizi, kurumsal çevirmenin Osmanlı İmparatorluğu döneminde devletin bu iş koluna verdiği önemden ötürü olumlu bir imge oluşturduğu; ancak bu imgenin erken Cumhuriyet döneminde devlet politikasında yaşanan değişiklikten ötürü giderek kötüleştiğini göstermiştir. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION................................................................................ 1 1.1 What are image and institutional translation.............................................. 1 1.2 Literature review........................................................................................ 4 1.3 Theoretical Framework.............................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 2: THE TRANSLATOR'S IMAGE IN THE EARLY OTTOMAN EMPIRE..................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 The main reasons behind the positive image of the institutional translator- interpreter....................................................................................................... 15 2.2 The dragoman's role and image in the Ottoman Empire.......................... 17 2.3 The dragoman's rights and privileges....................................................... 29 2.4 The dragoman's image in works of art..................................................... 32 2.5 Educational institutions for dragoman training........................................ 33 CHAPTER 3: THE TRANSLATOR'S IMAGE IN THE TANZIMAT PERIOD..................................................................................................................... 35 3.1 The Translation Chamber......................................................................... 37 3.2 Key figures in the Tanzimat period.......................................................... 42 3.3 The translator's image as seen in professional regulations...................... 46 CHAPTER 4: THE INSTITUTIONAL TRANSLATOR'S IMAGE IN THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD........................................................................................... 53 4.1 The transition period for the institutional translator's image: 1900- 1920s.............................................................................................................. 53 4.2 The effects of Westernization and the Translation Bureau on the institutional translator's image....................................................................... 58 vi 4.3 Discourse on the institutional translator' image....................................... 67 4.4 The institutional translator's image from a financial perspective............ 72 4.5 The 1960-1980s....................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER 5: THE INSTITUTIONAL TRANSLATOR'S IMAGE IN THE LATE 20TH AND EARLY 21ST CENTURY.................................................................... 75 5.1 Contributions to the institutional translator's image................................ 75 5.2 A brief analysis of the codes on institutional translation and translators...................................................................................................... 77 5.3 The institutional translator's current image from two different perspectives................................................................................................... 85 5.4 The government-employed institutional translator's image in Ankara... 86 5.5 The institutional translator's image in three different government offices: A case study.................................................................................................. 95 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION.............................................................................. 106 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR GOVERNMENT OFFICES.. 110 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR PUBLIC NOTARY OFFICES IN KAHRAMANMARAŞ…………....……………………………………………... 111 APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR PUBLIC NOTARY OFFICES IN ANKARA................................................................................................................ 112 REFERENCES........................................................................................................ 113 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 What are image and institutional translation? Translation activity cannot be considered separately from translators because they are the actual decision-makers in a process of intermingled relations between two languages and cultures. However, different historical periods witnessed the subordination and even denigration of translators, despite the heavy burden placed on these cultural agents' shoulders. Some translators in the Western world were even hung or burnt at stake in the past because of their translations of religious texts (Robinson, 2002, p. 95). Even without referring to such extreme cases, it is safe to state that translators around the world have generally not enjoyed favourable conditions, considering the importance of their works. It is difficult to determine when the awareness of translator's task and role came to light. One could argue that it started in the late 1970s when translation studies finally emerged as a distinct discipline. We became more aware of the translator's role when (1) translation scholars during the 1980s developed a keener interest in translation history and (2) when translation studies went through the so- called "cultural turn", which meant taking the cultural conditions and "contexts in which translation occurs" rather than the more limited linguistic and grammatical perspective that prevailed in 1960s and early 1970s (Bassnett, 2002, p. 2-3). Following the cultural turn, translators began to be seen more as "creative artists" who mediate between cultures and maintain their continuity "across time and space" (Bassnett, 2002, p. 4). Therefore, the cultural turn enabled translation scholars to highlight the complex network of decisions made during the translation process and consequently reveal the translators' key role in this cultural exchange. 1 Jean Delisle and Judith Woodsworth's seminal work Translators Through History (2012), too, draws attention to translators' diverse roles in history. They give a detailed account of how translators shaped their cultures and pioneered the development of various disciplines such as literature and history. In their book, translators' roles as creators of alphabets, national languages and dictionaries, men of letters, and their contribution to "the dissemination of knowledge", the characterization of national literatures, "the spread of religions" and "transmission of cultural values" are explained in detail (p. vii-ix). In his preface written for this book, Jean-François Joly, the president of International Federation of Translators, states that "translators

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