Ayse Ayhan

Istanbul: The city translated through migration

Analyzing the propositional and metaphorical connections between translation and migration, this paper questions how migration can translate a city. The condition of the migrant, according to Cronin, is the condition of the “translated being.” Translation, in the context of migration, might refer firstly to the transfer from one culture to another and secondly to the transformation that migrants undergo to survive in an unfamiliar environment. When migrants translate themselves or are translated by the target culture, they also translate the unfamiliar city. Istanbul, which has experienced migration throughout history either as a departure or arrival point, could be called a city of migration. Migrations have contributed to Istanbul’s translation in many ways. Since the 50s, domestic migration, particularly from villages to the city, has also been “translating” Istanbul. This paper traces the relationships between translation, domestic migration and the city in the novels of Latife Tekin and Orhan Kemal.

Keywords: translation, migration, city

Biography

Ayse Ayhan is a Doctoral Candidate at Yildiz Technical University, where she also works as an instructor in the Department of Translation and Interpreting teaching courses on Translation Studies and academic English. She has a BA in English Language Teaching from Marmara University and an MA in Translation from Boğaziçi University. Her MA thesis focused on the translation and reception of Latife Tekin’s literary works within the source and target cultures. Her doctoral dissertation on “Translation, Migration and Identity” is representative of her current research interests, which include literary translation, translated Turkish literature, post-colonial Translation Studies and translation criticism.