Images of Istanbul in translation: A case study in Slovenia

Abstract

The present paper examines the role of the translation of Orhan Pamuk’s İstanbul, Hatıralar ve Şehir (2003) into Slovene, in reshaping the image of Istanbul as perceived by the receiving audience. Considering Pamuk as a “translator” of Istanbul and focusing on the “metonymics” of translating cities, the present paper illustrates that translations can challenge and change the stereotyped images of cities as perceived by receiving audiences. It also shows that the narratives of cities which are bound by their authors’ choices as “translators” can only provide a partial representation of the “real” cities and can give more clues about the literary intentions and historical environment of their authors than they can give about the real cities.