Sevin莽 T眉rkkan
My work focuses on the English and German translations of the Turkish Noble Laureate Orhan Pamuk鈥檚 novels and on translation reception. In this presentation my examples come from the two English and one German translations of Pamuk鈥檚 Kara Kitap [The Black Book/The Dark Book]. My examples demonstrate what exactly translators did in order to turn 鈥渓oss in translation鈥� into gain. Further, I juxtapose the translations with their (negative) reception in book reviews to demonstrate the limited nature of 鈥渢ranslation criticism.鈥� Building on a theoretical frame inspired by the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Rachel May, Theo Hermans, and Antoine Berman, I pose these two questions: (1) How can we thoughtfully approach a text in translation, discuss it by going beyond the commonly circulating binaries of original/copy, faithful/unfaithful, domesticating/foreignizing but also without loosing sight of the ethics and politics of translation and world literature in a world shaped by unequal distribution of cultural and technological resources? (2) What is the task of the critic when confronted with a translated text which as I see it, is a unique archive within whose texture is embedded the cultural and geopolitical asymmetries otherwise obscured by 鈥渋llusions of transparency鈥� with which translations have come to be reviewed?
