Ideological encounters: Islamist retranslations of the Western classics

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to highlight a case in which translation becomes the battleground of two conflicting ideologies within the same society. The case presented here concerns repercussions of “Islamist” retranslations of the Western classics. These translations were criticized for being “ideologically manipulated” and “unethical”. Reactions to the Islamist translations found extensive coverage in the press, thereby making translation and the role of ideology in translation highly visible in Turkish society. The findings presented in this paper are supported by (1) reactions to Islamist translations as covered by the press, for an understanding of the public discourse on translation, (2) the comparison of the “Islamist” translations with their source texts, and for a wider picture, (3) an overview of the current political and social environment in Turkey characterized by the secularist-Islamist struggle. © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company.