BEŞİR FUAD AS A SELF-APPOINTED AGENT OF CHANGE: A MICROHISTORICAL STUDY

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Beşir Fuad (c. 1852-1887) was one of the most remarkable translators and writers of the 19th century Ottoman Empire. He is regarded as the first Turkish materialist and positivist who was responsible for introducing materialism and realism into the Turkish “culture repertoire” (Even-Zohar 2002) with his translations and indigenous works. He is acknowledged to have influenced a number of writers, intellectuals, and debates in Turkish literary history. However, he has not so far been given due credit in the studies of translation history in Turkey. This paper aims to explore Beşir Fuad’s role as a “self-appointed agent of change” (Toury 2002) and “trendsetter” (Sela-Sheffy forthcoming) who introduced innovative and unfamiliar options, which conflicted with the views of the majority of writers in the 19th century; and led to “cultural interference” (Sela-Sheffy forthcoming).

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Beşir Fuad , translator , agent of change , trendsetter , cultural interference , 19th century Ottoman culture repertoire , microhistory

Iu Journal Of Translation Studies

64

Iu Journal Of Translation Studies