Cover not available

Article published In: Target
Vol. 26:3 (2014) ► pp.385–405

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

A habitus-oriented perspective on resistance to language planning through translation

A case study on the Turkish translation of Elif Şafak’s The Bastard of Istanbul

 | Hacettepe University
Published online: 22 September 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.26.3.03dur
This paper explores some aspects of the socio-biography of the Turkish writer Elif Şafak, who made substantial changes to Baba ve Piç, the Turkish translation of her novel The Bastard of Istanbul. Arguing that Şafak’s habitus has a considerable influence on her style in Baba ve Piç, the paper focuses on Şafak’s incorporation of Ottoman Turkish words into the Turkish translation in order to show that the addition of these words frames the Turkish translation within the broader narrative of language planning in Turkey. Ultimately, the study argues that the concept of habitus and the concept of narrative can be fruitfully brought together to explain how certain socio-stylistic aspects of the habitus-governed translation respond to the larger narratives of the target society.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The concept of translator’s habitus
    • 1.2Why Elif Şafak’s habitus?
    • 2.Şafak’s position-taking in Turkish society
      • 2.1Language planning in Turkey
      • 2.2Şafak’s resistance to Turkish language planning
    • 3.Şafak’s style in the Turkish translation of The Bastard of Istanbul
    • 3.1Methodological background
    • 3.2Examples
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
References (59)
References
Adil, Alev. 2004. “Bugged by the Past amid Istanbul’s Flights of Fancy.” [URL]. Accessed December 2010.
Ahmad, Feroz. 1993. The Making of Modern Turkey. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akalın, Haluk. 2002. “Bitmeyen Tartışma Q, X, W…” [The endless debate Q, X, W…]. Türk Dili Dergisi [The Turkish Language Journal] 601 (1): 6–13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akbatur, Arzu. 2010. Writing/Translating in/to English: The ‘Ambivalent’ Case of Elif Şafak. PhD diss. Bogazici University, Istanbul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Armutçu, Emel. 2004. “Sabırsızlıktan yumurta bile kıramazdı, çok sabır isteyen romancılığı seçti” [She could not manage to break an egg due to her impatience, she chose to be a novelist, which requires a lot of patience]. [URL]. Accessed April 2012.
Aşut, Atilla. 2012. “Elif Şafak’ın Osmanlıca Sevdası” [Elif Şafak’s love of the Ottoman language]. Birgün Newspaper. [URL]. Accessed May 2013.
. 2006. Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination. Austin: Texas UP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. “Unitary Language.” In The Routledge Language and Cultural Theory Reader, ed. by Lucy Burke, Tony Crowley, and Allan Girvin, 269–279. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berk, Özlem. 2004. Translation and Westernisation in Turkey: From the 1840s to the 1980s. Istanbul: Ege.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bingöl, Yılmaz. 2012. “Sade Öz Türkçe Sarmalında Anayasanın Dili” [The language of the Constitution in the spiral of plain pure Turkish]. Anayasanın Dili Sempozyumu [Symposium on the language of the Constitution]. 1–22. [URL]. Accessed March 2013.
Boase-Beier, Jean. 2006. Stylistic Approaches to Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brenner, Angie. 2006. “A Writer on the Edge of Her Culture.” [URL]. Accessed May 2013.
Demiröz, Nazlı. 2009. “Under the Spell of Divine and Human Love: Taking a Long Journey into Yourself.” [URL]. Accesssed June 2013.
Ertop, Konur. 1963. “Atatürk Devriminde Türk Dili” [The Turkish language in Ataturk’s revolution]. Atatürk ve Türk Dili [Atatürk and the Turkish language] 224 (1): 53–102.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Even-Zohar, Itamar. 1978. Papers in Historical Poetics. Tel Aviv: Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finkel, Adrew. 2011. “Portrait of Elif Şafak.” [URL]. Accessed May 2013.
Genette, Gérard. 1980 [1972]. Narrative Discourse. An Essay in Method. Translated by Jane E. Lewin. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gropp, Lewis. 2006. “In Turkey, a Novel Is a Public Statement: Interview with Elif Shafak.” [URL]. Accessed February 2011.
Grutman, Rainier. 2009. “Self-Translation.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, and Gabriela Saldanha, 257–260. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hendrich, Béatrice. 2011. “Introduction – Beyond State Islam: Religiosity and Spirituality in Contemporary Turkey.” European Journal of Turkish Studies 131: 1–13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heyd, Uriel. 1954. Language Reform in Modern Turkey. Jerusalem: Israeli Oriental Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Touchstone.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karpat, Kemal. 1959. Turkey’s Politics: The Transition to a Multi-Party System. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levend, Agâh Sırrı. 1972. Türk Dilinde Gelişme ve Sadeleşme Evreleri [The phases of development and simplification in the Turkish language]. Ankara: TDK.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, Bernard. 1961. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meylaerts, Reine. 2006. “Literary Heteroglossia in Translation. When the Language of Translation is the Locus of Ideological Struggle.” In Translation Studies at the Interface of Disciplines, ed. by João Ferreira Duarte, Alexandra Assis Rosa, and Teresa Seruya, 85–98. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mukařovský, Jan. 1964. “Standard Language and Poetic Language” In A Prague School Reader on Esthetics, Literary Structure, and Style, ed. by Paul L. Garvin, 17–30. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munday, Jeremy. 2008. Style and Ideology in Translation: Latin American Writing in English. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oran, Baskın. 1993. Atatürk Milliyetçiliği [Ataturk’s nationalism]. Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özkan, Fadime. 2004. “İki arada, bir ‘Araf’ta” [In-between, in Limbo]. [URL]. Accessed June 2013.
Ricœur, Paul. 1981. “Narrative Time.” In On Narrative, ed. by W.J.T. Mitchell, 165–186. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roll. 2002. “Cesur birinin korktuğu an” [The moment when someone brave gets afraid]. [URL]. Accessed May 2013.
Saldanha, Gabriela. 2011. “Translator Style: Methodological Considerations.” The Translator 17 (1): 25–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scharf, Michael. 2005. “Bastard Out of Istanbul.” Publishers Weekly. [URL]. Accessed February 2012.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. “Between Sociology and History. Method in Context and in Practice.” In Constructing a Sociology of Translation, ed. by Michaela Wolf, and Alexandra Fukari, 187–204. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simpson, Paul. 2004. Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Somers, Margaret R., and Gloria D. Gibson. 1994. “Reclaiming the Epistemological “Other”: Narrative and the Social Constitution of Identity.” In Social Theory and the Politics of Identity, ed. by Craig Calhoun, 37–99. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Susam-Sarajeva, Şebnem. 2006. Theories on the Move: Translation’s Role in the Travels of Literary Theories. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Şafak, Elif. 2004. The Saint of Insipient Insanities. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “Linguistic Cleansing.” New Perspectives Quarterly 22 (3): 19–25. [URL]. Accessed August 2011. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Baba ve Piç. Translated by Aslı Biçen, and Elif Şafak. Istanbul: Metis Yayınları.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shafak, Elif. 2007. The Bastard of Istanbul. London: Penguin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Şafak, Elif. 2010a. The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi. New York: Viking.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010b. “Kurgunun Politikası” [The policy of fiction]. [URL]. Accessed on June 2012.
Şeker, Nimet. 2008. “Murathan Mungan: The Muse of Mardin.” [URL]. Accessed April 2012.
Tahir-Gürçağlar, Şehnaz. 2008. The Politics and Poetics of Translation in Turkey, 1923-1960. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yannakopoulou, Vasso. 2014. “The Influence of the Habitus on Translatorial Style: Some Methodological Considerations Based on the Case of Yorgos Himonas’ Rendering of Hamlet into Greek.” In Remapping Habitus in Translation Studies, ed. by Gisella Vorderobermeier, 163–182. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yasin, Sara. 2010. “A Conversation with Elif Şafak.” [URL]. Accessed July 2012.
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Sunar, Zeynep Elife
2024. Nationalizing a Nation by Vernacularizing its Religion: The Translation of the Azān from the Perspective of Rewriting and Norms. Sakarya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi (SAUIFD) DOI logo
Diao, Hong
2022.  Translating and literary agenting: Anna Holmwood’s Legends of the Condor Heroes . Perspectives 30:6 ► pp. 1059 ff. DOI logo
Bayri, Furzana
2019. Li-qawmin yatafakkarūn(Q. 30:21): Muhammad Asad's Qur'anic TranslatorialHabitus. Journal of Qur'anic Studies 21:2 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
ERGUVAN, Mehmet
2019. A Bourdieusian Perspective on the Translation of the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman from English into Turkish. Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi :25 ► pp. 143 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue