Around the World in English: The Production and Consumption of Translated Fiction in the UK between Cosmopolitanism and Orientalism Submitted by Perihan Duygu Tekgül As a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology In July 2012 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: 2 Abstract This thesis analyzes discourses of identity construction in the production and consumption of translated fiction in the contemporary British book culture. Drawing from ethnographic methods, it investigates what middle class, engaged readers make out of the translated novels they read, particularly in the ways that these books have been produced and marketed to them. The study concludes that translated fiction illustrates the multilayered meaning structures regarding taste and identity in reading communities and in the publishing industry in contemporary Britain. The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on sociological and anthropological studies on identity, intercultural communication and the consumption of art, alongside theories of reading and literary exchange from literary studies and translation studies. Data for the analysis on reading has been collected through participant observation/focus groups at over 30 book group meetings. Research methods also include interviews with individual readers and publishing industry professionals. Analysis of reading communities concentrates on responses to translated novels as texts that have undergone linguistic transference and as stories that portray other cultures. These responses are contextualized with the value orientations that arise from current trends of cultural consumption in the UK, such as monolingualism, cosmopolitanism and omnivorousness. The thesis also includes a case study on Turkish literature, exploring recent trends in literary production and the cultural role of literary translators. The study reveals the complex inflections of taste and identity in the practices of the agents of print culture. The textual-linguistic dimensions of translated texts are often the subject of negative evaluations when readers do not recognize the agency of the literary translator as an artist. Moreover, the opportunity of cultural encounter enabled by the reading experience activates varying discourses of intercultural communication, depending on readers’ cultural capital, their level of commitment to cosmopolitanism and the orientation of the book group’s discussion. In the production and consumption of translated fiction, the tension that arises between the pleasure and distinction dimensions of literary products translates into dilemmas between exoticism and cosmopolitan egalitarianism. 3 Keywords: translated fiction, cultural consumption, intercultural communication, print culture 4 Table of Contents Foreword 11 Acknowledgements 13 1 Introduction 15 2 Theorizing Books and Reading: An Interdisciplinary Approach 19 2.1 Introduction 19 2.2 Literary Production 23 2.3 The Novel as a Literary Form 28 2.4 The Practical Uses of Books 31 2.5 Taste, Social Positioning and Distinction 37 2.6 The Meaning Making Process 43 2.7 Intercultural Literary Exchange 46 2.8 Towards a Holistic Model for the Study of Books and Reading 51 2.9 Conclusion 54 3 Methodology 55 3.1 Research Questions 55 3.2 Methods 56 3.2.1 Participant Observation / Focus Group 56 3.2.2 Interviews 61 3.2.3 Questionnaires 63 3.2.4 Document Analysis 64 3.3 The Field 65 3.4 Methodological Considerations 68 4 Books and Reading in Contemporary Britain 71 4.1 Introduction 71 4.2 The History of Reading in Western Europe 71 4.3 Books and Readers Today 74 4.4 The Dimensions of Reading: Status, Pleasure and Selfhood 77 4.5 Book Reading as Cultural Consumption: Omnivorousness and Cosmopolitanism 82 4.6 Book Groups: Reading Communities 90 4.7 The Publishing Industry in Contemporary Britain 97 4.8 Conclusion 100 5 5 The Three Per Cent: Economic and Symbolic Value 101 5.1 Introduction 101 5.2 Translations in the UK 101 5.3 Incompatibility with Market Value Orientations 105 5.4 Readers’ Resistance 110 5.5 The Production of Symbolic Value 116 5.5.1 Cosmopolitanism 118 5.5.2 Title Selection and Promotion 122 5.5.3 Genres and Themes 126 5.5.4 A Success Story: The Millennium Trilogy 128 5.6 Conclusion 130 6 Marketing and Promoting Translations 133 6.1 Introduction 133 6.2 Marketing Symbolic Value, and the Culture of Disinterestedness 135 6.3 Translations and Market Penetration 139 6.3.1 Point of Sale Visibility 140 6.3.2 Visibility in Packaging 148 6.3.3 Cover Design Case Studies 150 6.4 Reading Exoticism in Book Covers 159 6.5 Conclusion 166 7 Translation as Linguistic Transference 169 7.1 Introduction 169 7.2 The Visibility of Translation and Translator 169 7.3 Cosmopolitan Consumption of Translated Literature 172 7.4 Translations at the Intersection of Omnivorousness and Cosmopolitanism 175 7.5 Literary Difference 180 7.6 Linguistic Difference 182 7.6.1 Agency of the Translator 183 7.6.2 Foreign Words 187 7.6.3 Paratextual Visibility 189 7.6.4 Appreciation of the Translator’s Skill 192 7.6.5 “The Unpardonable Sin” of Americanisms 197 7.7 Conclusion 203 6 8 Translation as Intercultural Communication 205 8.1 Introduction 205 8.2 Reading Translations as Proxy Travel and as Ethnography 210 8.3 Readers’ Dispositions and Expectations 215 8.4 Discourses of Intercultural Communication 217 8.4.1 Essentialism 217 8.4.2 Critical Reception 223 8.4.3 Belief Formation in Book Group Discussions 233 8.5 Conclusion 238 9 Case Study: Turkish Literature 241 9.1 Introduction 241 9.2 Modern Turkish Novel 241 9.3 Perceptions of Turkish Identity in Britain 243 9.4 An Overview of Turkish Fiction in English Translation 246 9.5 Turkish Literature in the UK Today 248 9.6 New Trend After 2005 251 9.7 Book Covers 254 9.8 Trends in Literary Production: Orientalism, Autoethnography and Anti-Conquest 258 9.9 Media Coverage and Popular Reception 265 9.10 Translator Profile: Maureen Freely 268 9.11 Conclusion 273 10 Conclusion 275 Appendix 1 281 Appendix 2 282 Appendix 3 283 Appendix 4 285 Appendix 5 292 Appendix 6 296 Bibliography 297 7 8 List of Illustrations 2.1. Darnton’s communications circuit 4.1. Book consumption statistics for the UK 5.1. Covers of Claude Izner novels from the Gallic Crime series 6.1. Consumers’ preferred sources of information and opinion for reading material 6.2. Display arrangements at Waterstones Notting Hill 6.3. Display arrangements at Waterstones Exeter High Street 6.4. Display arrangements at Waterstones Exeter High Street 6.5. Display arrangements at Waterstones Greenwich 6.6. Display arrangements at Blackwells Oxford 6.7. Display arrangements at Cambridge Heffers 6.8. The “Take Your Imagination East” page on the Vintage website 6.9. The cover of The Village of Stone by Xiaolu Guo and the original cover designed by the Chinese publisher 6.10. The two book covers designed for The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, and the cover designed by the Japanese publisher 6.11. The front cover of The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore and the cover designed by the Indian publisher 6.12. Book covers designed for Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy, and the covers used by the Egyptian publishing house 6.13. The visual representation of a myth 6.14. Jean-Léone Gérôme’s Bathing Scene and the cover designed for Perihan Ma!den’s 2 Girls 8.1. The blurb of the uncorrected bound proof copy of Najat El Hachmi’s The Last Patriarch 8.2. Faber and Faber advertisement for Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Museum of Innocence 9.1. The covers of the Hop-Ciki-Yaka Trilogy: The Prophet Murders, The Kiss Murder, The Gigolo Murder 9.2. Covers designed for Dear Shameless Death, Swords of Ice and Berji Kristen by Latife Tekin 9.3. An advertisement for the Revolutionary Writing Series by Faber and Faber 9 10 Foreword According to Stuart Hall (1991, 1992) identity is intimately linked to translation, since it can only be conceived of in a relational context, which makes translation a key phenomenon of intercultural interaction as well as cultural self-reflexivity. For the philosopher Paul Ricoeur (2006), translation is an ethical paradigm representing understanding. Therefore, translation is relevant to many discussions on identity today. Moreover, translated literature sits at the intersections of cultural consumption and intercultural communication. The starting point of this research is the fact that translated fiction accounts for only a sliver of annual book production today in Britain – estimates are between 2 and 3% (Wischenbart et al 2008: 13). The book market plays a central role in the cultural climate of any society, so books translated from other languages – doubly mediated narratives – are vested with layers of symbolic representations. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the meaning structures within which the production and consumption of translated fiction in contemporary Britain takes place. I found the inspiration for this research project at a symposium at Bo!aziçi University, Istanbul, on the translators and publishers of Turkish literature worldwide. As someone who grew up reading French, English and Russian classics in the Literature curriculum, and finding almost as many shelves of translated fiction as Turkish literature in bookshops, the fact that only 3% of books published in the USA and Britain are translations was intriguing for me. During the various panels at the symposium, I heard about European and North American publishers’ approach to modern Turkish literature and their marketing strategies.