Mehmet Y.Yilmaz: Traces left by two Turkish authors
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The French literary magazine Le Magazine Litteraire celebrated its 40th anniversary this past December. As a part of its celebration, Le Magazine Litteraire chose one, and sometimes two or more, books for each year. On Saturday, while looking over the magazine's selections, the following struck me:
For the year 1982, two books were chosen, one being Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose," and the other being Yasar Kemal's "Yilani Oldurseler," or "To Crush the Serpent." Alongside these choices, an interview with writer Yasar Kemal, which had originally been published in the magazine's 190th issue, was reprinted in this special new year's issue of the magazine.
In terms of important books from 2005, the magazine chose Orhan Pamuk's "Snow" as one of its titles.
Now, you can look at all this, and think one of two things: either you can be overjoyed that there are two Turkish authors who have left their imprints on world literature over the past 40 years. Or you can ask sadly why it is that only two Turkish authors have made it this far.
I prefer the first reaction. And there is no doubt in my mind that if the translation of Turkish writers' works into foreign languages had been taken more seriously by publishing houses, that we would be seeing more Turkish names on lists like these.
What this tableau really illustrates is that Turkish literature is not to be underestimated or diminished in its importance! And these are also results which show that we need to re-think the argument that Orhan Pamuk received his literature Nobel "because of political preferences."