No matter how old you are, reading a short story is entertaining. If you think about short stories, how many of you are familiar with the most important Turkish short story writers, and how many of you have read some of their stories already? Do you know how the English translations of Turkish short stories influenced the perception of Turkish culture in the world of literature? We suppose that most of you prefer to go with a novel these days because you might think that it looks fancier, especially when someone sees you with a novel rather than a short story. But we also know that you have a pile of novels in your library waiting to read, right? We also assume that you don’t come across short stories more often because novels are at the forefront for sure. For example, when you enter a bookshop to take a look at short stories, you have to make more of an effort to find them. But you know, Turkish short story writers have a huge impact on representing Turkish culture, identity, language, etc., in the world of literature. Also, the interesting and most common thing between these writers is not only their enormous talent for producing short stories, but they are also editors and translators. They are warriors, in a way. Perhaps that’s why they preferred to write everything down in a simpler way. So, in our article, we will introduce you to two of the most important Turkish short story writers, editors, and translators; Talat Sait Halman and Muzaffer Uyguner, and try to explain their impact on the global recognition of Turkish identity and culture.
The Representation of Turkish Short Stories in the World of English Literature
Türkçe kısa hikâyelerin İngilizceye çevrilmesiyle Türk yazarları, Türk kültürü, kimliği, dili, tarihi ve yazım teknikleri dünyada daha görünür bir hale gelmekle kalmadı böylece farklı kültürlerle de buluşma fırsatı oldu. 1980’lerde çeviri kitaplarının %40’tan fazlası İngilizceden çevrilmiş olmasına rağmen bu konuyla ilgili yapılan çeşitli çalışmalara baktığımızda azınlık dillerinden çevrilen kitapların oranının çok az olduğunu görüyoruz. Fakat 2000’li yıllara gelindiğinde bu oran artış gösteriyor ve Türkçe kısa hikâyeler de İngiliz edebiyat dünyasında çevirileriyle yer alıyor. Bu sayede Turkish short story writers are also becoming more visible and the artworks are finally starting to get the recognition they deserve. Despite this, there are still some problems, of course: Most of the works of our esteemed authors are published in various periodicals (such as Varlık...) or on websites, but according to our research, we have not been able to find concrete studies that examine and analyze these works and the writing techniques in these works. However, the various writing techniques used in the published works, the different narrative genres that extend to the life and history of Turkish society, the stories in which our authors bring together the universes in society with their worlds, prove to us the richness and mystery of our literature. We will try to summarize the long journey behind our article on the appearance of Turkish short stories in English by introducing two important Turkish writers, editors and translators, Talat Sait Halman and Muzaffer Uyguner, and a few of their works.
Two Magnificent Turkish Short Story Writers, Poets, Translators, and Editors: Talat Sait Halman and Muzaffer Uyguner
Without the efforts of Talat Sait Halman and Muzaffer Uyguner in Turkish literature and language, the essence of Turkish literature and culture would not be so lively and fruitful. They were not only writers but also educators. First and foremost, they shared their own experiences with readers, and all of their works bear their signatures. Also, they didn’t just make tremendous efforts to bring their own writing techniques to the forefront. Their focus was on finding the best ways to integrate Turkish culture and language with others in the world and give the Turkish language a spirit.
That’s why Talat Sait Halman and Muzaffer Uyguner were not only translators but were also cultural experts. We cannot include their vast contributions to our lives in this brief article; however, we recommend you check out their English translations of Turkish short story collections. One of them is “Sleeping in the Forest: Stories and Poems by Sait Faik”, edited by Talat Sait Halman and Jayne L. Warner. Also, Muzaffer Uyguner made great efforts to uphold the reputation of Sait Faik and wrote his bibliography. Unfortunately, this fascinating work by Uyguner has not been translated into English yet, but we hope that one of our readers will be inspired by this blog entry and translate the works of Sait Faik into English.