A case study of translator’s preface in Yok Edici

Translation and publication of foreign literature have at times resulted in obscenity court cases (e.g. the Aphrodite [1940] and Tropic of Cancer [1988] cases) against Turkish translators and publishers since the first decades of the Turkish Republic.  The recent obscenity court cases against the Turkish translators and publishers of William S. Burroughs’ The Soft Machine and Chuck Palahniuk’s Snuff (2011) were interpreted as instances of censorship. Taking this as a starting point, this article conducts a case study of Ahmet Ergenç’s translator’s preface for Exterminator!, a book by Burroughs which contains obscenity and was published in Turkey after the aforementioned court cases. The aims of this case study is to investigate the purpose of and reasons behind Ergenç’s preface and to determine whether Ergenç’s preface was influenced by the court cases and the censorial conditions under which Turkish translators work. To do so, Ergenç’s preface is studied in the light of Genette’s (1997) understanding of allographic and authorial prefaces and an interview is conducted with Ergenç. As a result, it is discussed that Ergenç aimed at informing readers unfamiliar with Burroughs about his style, which consists of fragmented narrative and obscene words, to prevent misinterpretations of them as translation mistakes on the part of the reader. As to the question of the influence of censorship on Ergenç’s preface, results of the analysis of the preface and the interview are conflicting. The article concludes that Ergenç denies any authorial responsibility for fragmentation and obscenity in Exterminator! and uses his preface to embrace invisibility as a translator while also gaining visibility at the same time through it.