Translation as a tool of constructing intercultural relations: a case study on the relation betweenturkish and cuban cultures

Abstract

With the cultural turn in Translation Studies, it has been accepted that translation is not just a linguistic but also a cultural activity. This cultural activity can appear in various forms such as a positive and constructive interaction or an asymmetrical power relation including assimilation, conquest and/or colonial activities between cultures. Literature, translation and translated literature can be used as a tool or strategy in this spectrum of complicated relations. The agents/actors taking an active role in these relations have become an object of study in Translation Studies as well as in all other fields of Social Sciences. Using his agent role as an ambassador, Ernesto Gomez Abascal wrote a fictional novel titled Havana’da Türk Tutkusu 1898 (Turkish Passion in Havana 1898) drawing inspiration from historical facts to construct a positive Turkish image in Spanish and Cuban literature and culture. Abascal was inspired by the future translator of the novel, Mehmet Necati Kutlu to write this book. Kutlu, who is an academician and an agent fostering the relations between Turkey and Latin American countries, reported his findings to Abascal about the Ottoman Empire and Cuban relations. Inspired by this information, Abascal wrote a fiction based on these historical records. This article will try to analyze the role of literature, translation and agents in the process of constructing cultural images through this example.