https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8166-755X
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ABSTRACT
This article aims to study the implications of bilingualism on literary celebrity with respect to having two sets of audiences that fall into two distinct categories in terms of linguistic hegemony: a nation/region-specific language and a global language. Using representation as a conceptual framework for both translation and celebrity, it aims to address such cross-cultural issues as pertaining to asymmetrical power relations. It offers as case study the bilingual official website of Elif Shafak, a novelist from Turkey with an international renown. The analysis reveals that addressing a dual audience can lead to the adoption of a double persona and, incidentally, a double standard that furthers unequal power relations on the global scale. Unlike the celebrity persona, which is the promoted face of the literary author and is structured for consumption, these personae are likely to be discernible only through critical analysis and to be operative in reproducing unequal power relations. Both the celebrity persona and the double persona would ultimately function to secure renown in accordance with global measures.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Data contained in this paragraph are obtained from Akbatur (Citation2010), Tüzün (Citation2013) and Soylu Bozdağ and Bulut (Citation2013).
2. See https://bit.ly/3GwHAzt/
5. See Robinson (Citation1997) and Bassnett (Citation2013).
6. See Clarke (Citation2009).
7. She borrows it from André Lefevere’s (Citation1992) theory of rewriting.
8. This is a publishing strategy noted by Akbatur (Citation2010) in her analysis of Shafak’s translations.
9. Lefevere depicts the literary scene in a given culture as a system in which works of literature are included, operated on, received and/or perceived according to a set of constraints regulating these procedures.
10. The Turkish translation of The Forty Rules of Love.
11. The Turkish translation of Honour. For the cover see https://bit.ly/3uAyiO7
12. See https://bit.ly/2YcrWbA
13. See https://amzn.to/3Ff94d6. The earlier British edition features also a woman, but without the headscarf (https://amzn.to/3B4Lrle).
14. The headscarf motif was used in a later edition of the Turkish version as well (https://amzn.to/3uyAFRA). The fact that this came after the US and UK editions might be indicative of some underlying act of self-Orientalisation.
15. All of the abovementioned covers can be found in Shafak’s official website, Books/Kitaplar section, in their respective (English and Turkish) versions. Clicking on each book cover leads to a section named Cover Gallery/Kitap Galerisi, wherein other covers that were used for the same book are displayed.
16. For examples and details see Canbay (Citation2014).
17. On Shafak’s Pinterest account, the following portrait of the author is presented as having been taken for Elele: https://pin.it/4OurjgK
18. The official information can be found on the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office’s website by entering Shafak’s Turkish name (Elif Şafak) in the search box in the following link: https://bit.ly/3iMjwPZ
19. For a detailed analysis of this incident and the discourse that was created around it see Akbatur (Citation2010).
20. The table begins with content that is listed for the years 2010–2021. The reason I did not include content that is listed for earlier years is that there is another website carrying Shafak’s name (http://www.elifsafak.us) which lists articles, reviews, interviews and news that are updated until about 2012. Many of the content in this website does not appear in the official website (which apparently was built later), giving the wrong impression that in, say, 2006, Shafak did not produce any material in neither English nor Turkish. In order to prevent such misunderstandings, I did not include what is listed for earlier than 2010. It should also be noted that sometimes an entry which belongs to a section (say, a news piece) is listed under another section (e.g. articles).
21. The present discussion is limited to what is offered in the website as published material, focusing on the visitor experience, without eliminating the possibility of there being other published material that is not included in the website (the article regards such non-inclusion as part of the social process of celebrity management).
22. We can add to this Shafak’s earlier fiction which was not translated into English.
23. Original statement: ‘Türkiye, ABD ve İngiltere’de [üniversitelerde] öğretim üyesi olarak dersler verdi’.
24. For an in-depth discussion about globalisation from different angles see Ritzer and Atalay (eds.) (Citation2010).
25. Abbreviations: TW = Turkish website. T = Turkish titles. EW = English website. E = English titles. O = titles in other languages. Some articles and media content appear in other languages in the English version. The occasional non-Turkish content in the Turkish version is captioned in Turkish with links that lead to the foreign content, whereas in the English version the captions tend to be left in their original languages. It should be noted that if the content is in another language but the title is in either Turkish or English, it is listed in the Turkish or English website columns respectively.
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Sare Rabia Öztürk
Sare Rabia Öztürk is a PhD candidate at Boğaziçi University, Translation and Interpreting Studies. She is engaged in cultural research in the framework of translation, studying instances of intercultural transfer in relation to historical context, popular culture and power relations. She also has professional experience in the field of gender studies, working as senior research and development specialist. She carries out her professional and academic studies in Turkish, English and Arabic.