Abstract
This chapter examines the editing, circulation, and reception processes of two English translations of an influential twentieth century Turkish novel with special attention to the ways in which the work was presented to the English-speaking audiences. The case study centers on Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s masterpiece titled Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü, translated twice into English as The Time Regulation Institute. It analyses the dissimilarities between the receptions of these two versions with special focus on the determining role of agents, especially the publishers, translators, critics, and reviewers in the process of legitimating translated works, together with the unequal distribution of “symbolic capital” among these agents. Examining paratextual elements together with reader responses published in online media, the chapter explores (i) the different editorial approaches of large publishing houses and small publishers specializing in translations from peripheral languages and (ii) the functions of paratexts in recontextualizing and legitimating literary products. It is argued that the retranslation of Tanpınar’s work was published with the motive of achieving canonicity though the inscription of a new interpretation, and that the retranslation and its paratexts were shaped under the influence of Orhan Pamuk’s writings about Tanpınar which also reflected the recent images of Turkey. The chapter also points to the importance of reader responses and blog posts shared on the Internet as sources offering new interpretations beyond the confines of the frame set by paratext writers, exploring the book from a variety of perspectives.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
That is languages of smaller dissemination, also referred to as “less translated languages” (Branchadell 2005).
- 2.
For a critical discussion of the author’s harsh criticism of Atatürk’s project which, according to Mishra, “inflicted immense violence and suffering” (2013, viii) on the society and of his oversimplifying summary of a hundred years of the republican history as a “turn to a moderate Islamism after decades of a secular dictatorship” (2013, viii) see Armağan Ekinci (2015).
- 3.
The language reform can be explained as a “government-sponsored language planning” which followed the alphabet reform (1928) and aimed at the “purification of the language of foreign loan words and vernacularisation or simplification of vocabulary, grammar and phraseology for everyday conversational use” (Berk 2004, 96). For further discussion on this topic see Berk 2004 and Berk Albachten 2015.
References
Akkan, S. H. (1999). Dictionary of Turkish acronyms and abbreviations. Madison: Turko-Tatar Press.
“Amazon Customer”. (2014). Turkish political satire. https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_paging_btm_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=2. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Armstrong, W. (2014). ‘The Time regulation institute’ by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar. Hürriyet Daily News, 8 January. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-time-regulation-institute-by-ahmet-hamdi-tanpinar.aspx?pageID=238&nID=60673&NewsCatID=474. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Berk, Ö. (2004). Translation and Westernization in Turkey: from the 1840s to the 1980s. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları.
Berk Albachten, Ö. (2015). The Turkish language reform and intralingual translation. In Ş. Tahir Gürçağlar et al. (Eds.), Tension and tradition: The dynamics of translation in Turkey (pp. 165–180). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Blackwell, R. (2014). This is a wonderful book! https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/dp/0143106732/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501253227&sr=8-1&keywords=time+regulation+institute. Accessed 28 July 2017.
Bourdieu, P. (1979). La Distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit.
Bourdieu, P. (2008). A conservative revolution in publishing. (R. Fraser, Trans.). Translation Studies 1(2), 123–153.
Branchadell, A. (2005). Introduction: Less translated languages as a field of inquiry. In A. Branchadell & L. M. West (Eds.), Less translated languages (pp. 1–23). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Çetin, F. (2012). My grandmother: An Armenian-Turkish memoir (M. Freely, Trans.). London: Verso.
Deluard, V. (2014). Worthy of your time. https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_paging_btm_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=2. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Demirkol Ertürk, Ş. (2013). Images of Istanbul in translation: A case study in Slovenia. Across Languages and Cultures, 14(2), 199–220.
Donoghue, S. (2014). Penguins on parade: The time regulation institute! Stevereads, 8 January 2014. http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/stevereads/2014/01/penguins-on-parade-the-time-regulation-institute/. Accessed 27 July 2018.
“Dr. Laurence Raw”. (2015). Hugely comic satire of Turkish bureaucracies. https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_paging_btm_1?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=1. Accessed 27 July 2018.
“eagle eye”. (2015). Modern times. https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_paging_btm_1?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=1. Accessed 27 July 2018.
“EF”. (2018). Complex, sly humor, sometimes hilarious – very relevant to today’s world! https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_paging_btm_1?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=1. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Ekici, A. (2015). Saatler nasıl ayar edilmeli? http://t24.com.tr/k24/yazi/saatler-nasil-ayar-edilmeli,263. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Freely, M, & Dawe, A. (2013). A Note on the Translation. In A. H. Tanpınar, The time regulation institute (pp. xxi–xxiii). New York: Penguin Books.
Genç, K. (2014). The self-inventions of modernity. Guernica, 12 March 2014. http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/kaya-genc-the-self-inventions-of-modernity/. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Genette, G. (1997). Paratexts: Thresholds of interpretation (J. E. Lewin, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hanna, S. (2007). Decommercialising Shakespeare: Mutran’s translation of othello. Critical Survey, 19(3), 27–54.
Hanna, S. (2016). Bourdieu in translation studies. The socio-cultural dynamics of Shakespeare translation in Egypt. London: Routledge.
Heilbron, J. (1999). Towards a sociology of translation. Book translations as a cultural world-system. European Journal of Social Theory, 2(4), 429–444.
Hermans, T. (1996). The translator’s voice in translated narrative. Target, 8(1), 23–48.
“K D”. (2002). Great job. https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_paging_btm_3?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=3. Accessed 28 July 2017.
Kirkus Reviews. (2014). The time regulation institute. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ahmet-hamdi-tanpinar/time-regulation-institute/. Accessed 28 July 2017.
Kuran Burçoğlu, N. (1998). At the crossroads of translation studies and imagology. In A. Chesterman et al. (Eds.), Translation in context (pp. 143–151). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Kuran Burçoğlu, N. (2007). Turkey. In M. Beller & J. T. Leerssen (Eds.), Imagology: The cultural construction and literary representation of national characters. A critical survey (pp. 254–258). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
“lanegood”. (2015). Excellent. https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_paging_btm_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=2. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Lauer, C. (2014). Going back in time. The National, 27 February 2014. http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/classic-novel-by-turkish-author-has-even-more-relevance-50-years-later#full. Accessed 27 July 2018.
“Leonick”. (2016). Great book – unreliable retailer. https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_paging_btm_1?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=1. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Lefevere, A. (1985). Why waste our time on rewrites? The trouble with interpretation and the role of rewriting in an alternative paradigm. In T. Hermans (Ed.), The manipulation of literature (pp. 215–243). London/Sydney: Croom Helm.
Leigh, K. (2014). How ‘The Time Regulation Institute’ became a global bestselling book. Speakeasy, 19 March 2014. http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/03/19/how-the-time-regulation-institute-became-a-global-bestselling-book/. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Manguel, A. (2013). A novel for all times. http://www.geist.com/fact/columns/a-novel-for-all-times/. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Manguel, A. (2016). Tanpınar’ın İzinde Beş Şehir. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
McCarthy, J. (2015). Turks and Armenians: Nationalism and conflict in the Ottoman empire. Madison: Turko-Tatar Press.
Midwest Book Review. (2002). “Speaks of the heart and soul of a nation”. https://www.amazon.com/Regulation-Institute-Ahmet-Hamdi-Tanpinar/product-reviews/0143106732/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_paging_btm_3?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=3. Accessed 28 July 2017.
Midwest Book Review. 2014. http://www.midwestbookreview.com. Accessed 1 Dec 2014.
Mishra, P. (2013). Introduction. In A. H. Tanpınar, The time regulation institute (pp. vii–xix). New York: Penguin Books.
Moran, B. (1978/2008). Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü. In A. Uçman & H. İnci (Eds.), “Bir Gül Bu Karanlıklarda” Tanpınar Üzerine Yazılar (pp. 262–278). Istanbul: 3F Yayınevi.
Moran, B. (1998). Bir Huzursuzluğun Romanı: Huzur. In Türk Romanına Eleştirel Bir Bakış (pp. 203–223). Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
Moran, B. (2001). The time regulation institute. A critical essay by Berna Moran (Z. Başkal, Trans.). In A. Hamdi Tanpınar (Ed.), The time regulation institute (pp. 1–23). Madison, WI: Turko-Tatar Press.
Orthofer, M. A. (2013). The time regulation institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar. The Complete Review, 28 December 2013. http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/turkey/tanpinah2.htm. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Pamuk, O. (1994). The black book (G. Gün, Trans.). London: Faber and Faber.
Pamuk, O. (2005). Snow (M. Freely, Trans.). New York: Vintage International.
Pamuk, O. (2006a). Istanbul: Memories and the city (M. Freely, Trans.). New York: Vintage International.
Pamuk, O. (2006b). The black book (M. Freely, Trans.). London: Faber.
Riker, M. (2014). A Ramshackle modernity: ‘The Time Regulation Institute,’ by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar. The New York Times, 3 January 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/books/review/the-time-regulation-institute-by-ahmet-hamdi-tanpinar.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Sacks, S. (2014). Fiction chronicle. Wall Street Journal, 3 January 2014. https://www.wsj.com/articles/fiction-chronicle-1388787038?tesla=y. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Sapiro, G. (2008). Translation and the field of Publishing. Translation Studies, 1(2), 154–166.
Saval, N. (2014). Modern times. A satire of bureaucracy takes aim at mid-century Turkey. http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/020_04/12477. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Schillinger, L. (2014). The time regulation institute. Barnes and Noble Review. 13 January 2014. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/the-time-regulation-institute/. Accessed 27 July 2018.
Soenen, J. (1997). Imagology and translation. In N. K. Burçoğlu (Ed.), Multiculturalism: Identity and otherness (pp. 125–138). Istanbul: Boğaziçi University Press.
Tahir, Ş., & Türker, E. (2000). ‘The man from the east-west’. Reviews of Turkish literature and Turkey’s image in Norway in the 1990s. In N. K. Burçoğlu (Ed.), The image of the Turk in Europe from the declaration of the Republic in 1923 to the 1990s (pp. 67–87). Istanbul: The Isis Press.
Tahir Gürçağlar, Ş. (2009). Retranslation. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies (2nd ed., pp. 233–236). London/New York: Routledge.
Tahir Gürçağlar, Ş. (2014). Agency in allographic prefaces to translated books: An initial exploration of the Turkish context. In H. Jansen & A. Wegener (Eds.), Authorial and editorial voices in translation 2 – editorial and publishing practices (pp. 89–108). Montreal: Éditions québécoises de l’oeuvre.
Tahir Gürçağlar, Ş., & Pokorn, N. K. (2013). Translational and cultural exchange between two cultures pushed to global periphery. Across Languages and Cultures, 14(2), 163–166.
Tanpınar, A. H. (1946/2006). Beş Şehir. Istanbul: Dergâh Yayınları.
Tanpınar, A. H. (1961). Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü. Istanbul: Dergâh Yayınları.
Tanpınar, A. H. (2001). The time regulation institute. (E. Gürol, Trans.). Madison, WI: Turko-Tatar Press.
Tanpınar, A. H. (2007a). Inner peace. (E. Gürol, Trans.). Madison, WI: Turko-Tatar Press.
Tanpınar, A. H. (2007b). In İ. Enginün & Z. Kerman (Eds.), Günlüklerin Işığında Tanpınar’la Başbaşa. Istanbul, Dergâh Yayınları.
Tanpınar, A. H. (2013). The time regulation institute (M. Freely & A. Dawe, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books.
Turko-Tatar Press. (2017). http://www.turko-tatar.com. Accessed 28 July 2017.
Venuti, L. (2004). Retranslations: The creation of value. In K. M. Faull (Ed.), Translation and culture. Special issue of Bucknell Review 47(1), 25–38.
Westerman, A. (2014). Ticking in my head. Typographical Era, 2 January 2014. http://www.typographicalera.com/time-regulation-institute-ahmet-hamdi-tanpinar/. Accessed 28 July 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Demirkol Ertürk, Ş. (2019). Retranslating and Repackaging a Literary Masterpiece from a Peripheral Language: The Functions of Paratexts in Recontextualizing Literary Translations. In: Berk Albachten, Ö., Tahir Gürçağlar, Ş. (eds) Studies from a Retranslation Culture. New Frontiers in Translation Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7314-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7314-5_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-7313-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-7314-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)