Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in Turkey: History of Translations

Abstract

The article is devoted to the review of the history of translations of Fyodor Dostoevsky into Turkish. Currently, Dostoevsky is one of the most popular foreign writers in Turkey, and according to the Turkish book market, one of the most purchased authors. By decision of the Ministry of Public Education, since 2004, the works of the Russian classic have been included in the recommendatory part of the school curriculum, so it is difficult to find a person in Turkey who would not read Dostoevsky. The history of Dostoevsky’s translations into Turkish evolved in a special way: back in the late 19th — early 20th century there were none, since the Department of Russian Language and Literature in Turkey first opened in 1935, but the first translations appeared only in the 1920s and performed from French. However, subsequently the popularity of the writer grew so much that absolutely all of his works were translated into Turkish, and some even several times. Classical Russian literature had a special influence on Turkish literature of the 20th century, and Dostoevsky’s works are the most important literary basis for their own work for many Turkish writers. For example, the recently translated into Russian novel “The Idiot” by the American writer of Turkish origin Elif Batuman, who was born and raised in the United States, as well as the novel by the young prose writer Burhan Sonmez “Istanbul. Istanbul”. Despite the late appearance of Dostoevsky’s works on the Turkish book market and late acquaintance with the Turkish reader, Dostoevsky became one of the most popular and beloved Russian writers among Turks of almost all ages (which is confirmed by the publication of Dostoevsky’s works in an adapted form for children). The authors of the article analyzed the history of translations of Dostoevsky’s novels into Turkish and came to the conclusion that the appearance of a large number of translations is explained not only by the great popularity of the Russian language and culture in modern Turkey, and not only by the cinematic popularity of Dostoevsky all over the world, but also by a high reader demand for his texts, since Dostoevsky’s works meet the cultural and moral needs of modern Turkish society.