A Study of Paratexts of Turkish Translations of the Kurdish
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TRANSLATION AND IDEOLOGY: A STUDY OF PARATEXTS OF TURKISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE KURDISH MESNEVI MEM Û ZİN IN THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD SEÇİL TÖRE BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY 2015 TRANSLATION AND IDEOLOGY: A STUDY OF PARATEXTS OF TURKISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE KURDISH MESNEVI MEM Û ZİN IN THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD 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 Seçil Töre Boğaziçi University 2015 ABSTRACT Translation and Ideology: A Study of Paratexts of Turkish Translations of the Kurdish Mesnevi Mem û Zin in the Republican Period Mem û Zin, the masterpiece of the seventeenth-century Kurdish poet Ehmedê Xanî, was translated into Turkish in both the Ottoman and Republican periods. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the paratexts accompanying the Turkish translations of Mem û Zin that were produced from Kurdish source-texts in the Republican period, so as to examine the impact that ideology can have on translation. Translations of Mem û Zin in much of the Republican period encountered censorship and repression. However, the same text was translated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a representative of the state, in 2010, thus suggesting the strong relationship between ideology, politics and translation. To examine this relationship, the thesis retrospects the Kurdish issue in Turkey in its various linguistic, social, academic and literary dimensions. After that, the theoretical framework is presented and, in particular, the salience of Lefevere’s concept of rewriting is emphasized. As for the methodology, paratextual analysis and critical discourse analysis are deployed in an attempt to reveal the ideological motives behind the translations. With these methodological tools, I analyze the book covers and prefaces of Mehmet Emin Bozarslan’s translation (1968, 1975 and 1990), Namık Açıkgöz’s translation (2010) and Kadri Yıldırım’s translation (2010) and book-length translation criticism (2011). The thesis concludes that the Turkish adventure of Mem û Zin offers a striking case of the link between ideology and translation, while analysis of the paratexts for iv various Kurdish-Turkish translations demonstrates the role that paratexts can play in creating new images of authors and works. v ÖZET Çeviri ve İdeoloji: Kürtçe Mesnevi Mem û Zin’in Cumhuriyet Dönemi Türkçe Çevirilerinin Yan Metin İncelemesi 17. yüzyılda yaşamış olan Kürt şair Ehmedê Xanî’nin en önemli eserlerinden olan Mem û Zin mesnevisi, hem Osmanlı hem de Cumhuriyet döneminde Türkçe’ye çevrilmiştir. Bu tezin amacı, Cumhuriyet döneminde Kürtçe’den Türkçe’ye yapılan Mem û Zin çevirilerinin yan metinlerini incelemek ve bu sayede ideolojinin çeviri üzerindeki etkisini ortaya koymaktır. Cumhuriyet tarihinin büyük bir bölümünde, Mem û Zin çevirileri sansür ve baskıya maruz kalmıştır. Fakat 2010 yılında, Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlğı, devletin bir temsilcisi olarak, Mem û Zin’in yeni bir Türkçe çevirisini yayınlar. Bu durum, çevirinin siyaset ve ideoloji ile arasındaki ilişkiyi gözler önüne sermektedir. Bu ilişkiyi incelemek için, çalışmada öncelikle Türkiye’deki Kürt meselesi dilsel, sosyal, akademik ve edebi boyutlarıyla tarihsel olarak ele alınır. Sonrasında, kavramsal çerçeve açıklanır ve özellikle André Lefevere’nin yeniden yazım kavramına vurgu yapılır. Çevirilerin ideolojik amaçlarını açığa çıkarmak için, yan metin incelemesi ve eleştirel söylem çözümlemesi yöntemleri kullanılmıştır. Bu yöntemler yardımıyla, Namık Açıkgöz’ün çevirisi (2010), Kadri Yıldırım’ın çevirisi (2010) ve çeviri eleştirisi kitabı (2011) incelenmiştir. Çalışma, Mem û Zin’in Türkçe’deki macerası üzerinden çeviri ve ideoloji arasındaki güçlü bağa dikkat çeker. Aynı zamanda, kaynak metni Kürtçe olan Mem û Zin çevirilerinin yan metinlerinin incelenmesi, yazar ve eseri için yeni bir imaj oluşturmada yan metinlerin ne kadar etkili bir rol oynadığını ortaya koyar. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Assist. Prof. Jonathan Maurice Ross, for his great support, help and guidance during the course of this study. It was a pleasure to work with him. I am also thankful to Assoc. Prof. Clemence Scalbert-Yücel, Assist. Prof. Oğuz Baykara, Assist. Prof. Martin Cyr Hicks and Assist. Prof. Kyriaki Kourouni for kindly participating in the Examining Committee, as well as for sharing their insightful and precious comments. I would like to thank my mother Nihal Erciyes, my father Prof. Ahmet Tuncer Erciyes and my brother Anılcan Erciyes for their never-ending support and limitless love. I feel very lucky to have such a great family. Another person who makes me feel lucky is my husband, İhsan Töre, who has supported me throughout my academic life and encouraged me to pursue my Master’s degree. I am grateful to him for standing by me in all the stages of the life that we share. Lastly, I am very thankful to my little baby, who has let me have a very smooth pregnancy and allowed me to complete this thesis in the first three months of the pregnancy. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: CONTEXTUALIZING THE KURDISH LANGUAGE IN TURKEY .................................................................................................................................... 12 1.1 Legal context................................................................................................ 14 1.2 Kurdish language in the public sphere ......................................................... 27 1.3 Defining an ethnic group and its language: demographic studies and linguistic classifications ...................................................................................... 31 1.4 Academic context ........................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 2: KURDISH LITERARY AND TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES ........ 45 2.1 Kurdish literary activities in Turkey ............................................................ 45 2.2 The role of translation in the Kurdish literary system ................................. 51 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY ............ 58 3.1 Retranslation hypothesis .............................................................................. 58 3.2 Lefevere’s concept of Rewriting .................................................................. 62 3.3 Paratextual analysis...................................................................................... 64 3.4 Critical discourse analysis ........................................................................... 69 CHAPTER 4: REWRITING MEM Û ZİN IN TURKEY / TURKISH: ACADEMIC STUDIES AND TRANSLATIONS .......................................................................... 72 4.1 Academic studies on Xanî and Mem û Zin in Turkey.................................. 72 4.2 Mem û Zin as a source text........................................................................... 79 4.3 Translations of Mem û Zin in the Ottoman period ....................................... 81 4.4 Translations of Mem û Zin in the Republican period................................... 85 4.5 Indirect translations of Mem û Zin ............................................................... 90 4.6 Mem û Zin on the silver screen and stage .................................................... 91 CHAPTER 5: PARATEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF TURKISH TRANSLATIONS OF MEM Û ZİN ............................................................................................................... 94 5.1 Mehmet Emin Bozarslan’s translation – 1968 Edition ................................ 95 5.2 Mehmet Emin Bozarslan’s translation – 1975 & 1990 Editions ............... 101 5.3 Namık Açıkgöz’s translation – 2010 ......................................................... 108 5.4 Kadri Yıldırım’s translation – 2010 ........................................................... 121 5.5 Kadri Yıldırım’s translation criticism on Namık Açıkgöz’s translation.... 125 viii CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 137 APPENDIX A: CEMAL GÜRSEL’S PREFACE TO DOĞU İLLERİ VE VARTO TARİHİ ..................................................................................................................... 146 APPENDIX B: SAMPLE CENSORED PAGES FROM MEHMET EMİN BOZARSLAN’S TRANSLATION (1968).............................................................. 148 APPENDIX C: THE BACK COVERS OF THE 1975 & 1990 EDITIONS OF MEHMET EMİN BOZARSLAN’S TRANSLATION ............................................ 149 APPENDIX D: THE BACK COVER OF KADRİ YILDIRIM’S TRANSLATION (2010) ....................................................................................................................... 151 APPENDIX E: TABLE OF CONTENTS IN KADRİ YILDIRIM’S KÜLTÜR BAKANLIĞI’NIN MEM Û ZÎN ÇEVİRİSİNE ELEŞTİREL BİR YAKLAŞIM .. 152 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 153 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The cover of the first (1968) edition of Mehmet Emin Bozarslan’s translation……………………………………………………………………………96 Figure 2. The second (1975) edition by Koral Publishing………………………....102 Figure 3. The third (1990) edition by Hasat Publishing…………………………...103 Figure 4. The cover of Namık Açıkgöz’s translation published by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2010………………………………………………………112 Figure 5. The