Exile as translation and transformation in early Republican Turkey

Abstract

Between 1933 and 1945, hundreds of German-speaking academics who had to leave their posts and their countries under the Nazi regime went to Turkey to work at Istanbul University and later at other institutions. This paper looks at this unique exilic experience from a translational perspective and sheds light on the various translation processes operational during the émigré professors' time in Turkey. It examines the professors' contribution to Turkish scientific and legal terminology, their involvement in literary translations and the use of translation in their classrooms. The paper argues that Istanbul and Ankara in the 1930s and 1940s formed a singular setting for translation that was linguistic, cultural and culture-changing. In these multicultural and multilingual spaces, translation in both its literal and metaphorical sense transformed all the subjects involved in the encounter.

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