{"id":1628,"date":"2025-08-05T12:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/?page_id=1628"},"modified":"2025-08-05T13:04:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:04:46","slug":"translating-the-ottoman-grotesque","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/reviews\/translating-the-ottoman-grotesque\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Translating the Ottoman Grotesque: Hande Eagle\u2019s English Rendition of H\u00fcseyin Rahmi G\u00fcrp\u0131nar\u2019s<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>Ghoulyab\u00e2n\u00ee<\/em><span>\u00a0<\/span>(2024)<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ghoulyab\u00e2n\u00ee<\/em>, a humorous social critique first published in 1913 by the prominent Turkish author H\u00fcseyin Rahmi G\u00fcrp\u0131nar (1864-1944), is a welcome addition to the corpus of late Ottoman texts available in English translation.<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>Ghoulyab\u00e2n\u00ee,<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em>which blends supernatural horror with absurdist comedy and pointed social critique, was written as Book I of G\u00fcrp\u0131nar\u2019s septology titled \u201c<em>The Complete Works of Peculiarity<\/em>.\u201d In this work, centered on a maid who goes to live and work in a mansion haunted by ghouls, nothing is as it seems.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>In its first full English translation, rendered by Hande Eagle and published by Translation Attached in 2024, the novel emerges not simply as a gothic curiosity from a distant culture but as a lively, unsettling, and modern work of literature. Eagle\u2019s translation is exemplary for its precision, readability, and reflective engagement with the complexities of cultural and linguistic transfer.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>Hande Eagle\u2019s translation is rooted in a deep commitment to linguistic fidelity and cultural nuance. Eagle worked mainly from Nil\u00fcfer Tan\u00e7\u2019s 2021 edition of the original text. In an entry titled, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.handeeagle.com\/a-fairy-is-a-peri-is-a-peri-a-fairy\">A Fairy is a Peri, Is a Peri a Fairy<\/a>\u201d in her blog \u201cLive the Questions Now,\u201d Hande reflects candidly on the challenges she faced in translating a text that resists easy assimilation into genre categories. Her commentary reveals a nuanced approach to lexical decisions, genre conventions, and reader expectations. Eagle\u2019s Translators\u2019 Notes sprinkled throughout the translation, and public reflections make visible the act of negotiation that literary translation demands. These notes provide necessary context without overburdening the reader or breaking narrative flow. Eagle\u2019s editorial sensibility is visible here: she assumes her readers are intelligent and curious, but not necessarily familiar with Ottoman Turkish beliefs or Islamic terminology.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>Eagle\u2019s prose style strikes a careful balance between accessibility and period-appropriate diction. She avoids flattening G\u00fcrp\u0131nar\u2019s satirical tone or archaism, while also steering clear of a faux-Victorian voice that would alienate modern readers. I would strongly recommend that readers who want to get a taste of the novel and the translators style explore the excerpt published on the Translation Attached Website<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/translationattached.com\/2024\/02\/16\/an-excerpt-from-ghoulyabani\/\">(Chapter 3),<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>a scene involving rural servants terrified by tales of ghouls and spirits is provided, with both humor and tension. Eagle\u2019s translation preserves the theatricality of the characters\u2019 speech and the eerie absurdity of their surroundings. For example, the cook\u2019s alarmed chatter contrasts sharply with Ay\u015fe Han\u0131m\u2019s rationalist dismissals\u2014an opposition that Eagle captures not only through vocabulary but through syntax and rhythm. These class and temperament distinctions are crucial to the novel\u2019s satire, and Eagle conveys them with subtlety.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>What makes this translation particularly valuable is Eagle\u2019s dual function as both literary translator and critical interlocutor. Her public writing, including the \u201cTranslator\u2019s Foreword,\u201d and the essays posted to her website, offers readers an open window onto the decisions that shape the final text. In this sense, the translation itself becomes a valuable tool for students and scholars of Turkish literature and translation studies.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>This translation will be of particular interest to scholars of late Ottoman literature, folklore, and gender satire, as well as to general readers interested in ghost stories with a bite. It stands as a welcome contribution to the field of world literature in translation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Roberta Micallef<\/p>\n<p>August 1, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Translating the Ottoman Grotesque: Hande Eagle\u2019s English Rendition of H\u00fcseyin Rahmi G\u00fcrp\u0131nar\u2019s\u00a0Ghoulyab\u00e2n\u00ee\u00a0(2024) &nbsp; \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ghoulyab\u00e2n\u00ee, a humorous social critique first published in 1913 by the prominent Turkish author H\u00fcseyin Rahmi G\u00fcrp\u0131nar (1864-1944), is a welcome addition to the corpus of late Ottoman texts available in English translation.\u00a0Ghoulyab\u00e2n\u00ee,\u00a0which blends supernatural horror with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2718,"featured_media":0,"parent":1624,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2718"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1644,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1628\/revisions\/1644"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/artichoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}