Turkish versions of To the lighthouse from the perspective of modernism

Abstract

This article deals with the reception of modernism in Turkey, from the tracks of the Turkish versions of Virginia Woolf's To the lighthouse. Accordingly, it compares the Turkish versions of To the lighthouse (from 1944 to 2000), so as to reveal the way in which 'modernism' has been perceived as a literary genre, and the stages it has gone through during its reception. Methodologically, the linguistic shifts are identified and categorized not only to reveal the Turkish brand of modernism, but also to unravel the ever-changing norms in translation processes in line with the political, economic and social revolutions taking place during the foundation years of the Turkish Republic. Therefore, it studies not only the notion of modernism as a literary genre, but also the notion of Modernization, or Westernization as a social event that has changed the direction of the newly-founded nation from the East to the West. In conclusion, this article discusses, from the perspective of translation studies, the national policy of the newly-founded Turkish Republic in pioneering Western values, after 800 years of the hegemony of social, religious and cultural dogmas of the East.