From the Local to the Universal: Kemal Tahir

Abstract

During the Cold War, which spanned from 1945-1989, intellectual dissidents in Türkiye initiated a wave of exile to France due to the crackdown on communist movements. In 1949, the Union of Progressive Young Turks was founded in Paris, after which French publishers started taking a closer interest in Turkish literature. The journey of Turkish literature into the French language especially began with the impact of exiled intellectuals in Paris and transnational publishing networks such as Les Éditeurs Français Réunis, Gallimard, and Plon. Transnational solidarity networks played a pivotal role in Turkish literature being translated into French and circulated in France. Turkish literature gained legitimacy in international circulation not merely as a matter of linguistic translation; the friendship that arose from the political alliance between Nâzım Hikmet and Louis Aragon played a significant role, alongside the strategic and original translations undertaken by such intermediaries as Güzin Dino and Münevver Andaç. This study draws upon Gisèle Sapiro’s perspective of transnational circulation with the aim of examining the struggle for Turkish literature’s recognition in France, which is interwoven with political alliances. Our study will examine the function of translation as a tool of legitimacy, focusing on Turkish writers’ acceptance into the French literary field following the correspondence between Nâzım Hikmet and Louis Aragon. The focal point of our study will be the process of how Kemal Tahir’s The Hunchback of the Village was translated into French.