Turkish Source Texts of Presidency of Atatürk Cultural Center Translation Project with Special Reference to Translation of Biography from Turkish into Other Languages

Abstract

A biography is a literary genre that recounts a person’s life and takes shape within a historical narrative. Biographical narratives play a decisive role in the reconstruction of both individual and collective memory. In such texts, the balance between subjectivity and objectivity is shaped by the events chosen by the narrator, their use of language, and their narrative strategies. Preserving this narrative structure during the translation of these texts into different languages is critical for the meaning of the text to be re-established in the target language. In this context, translations of biographies from Turkish into other languages play an important role in conveying Turkey’s historical and cultural memory to the international public.

Another project that has made noteworthy progress in the context of biographical text translations in Turkey is the “Concise Biography Series of Formative Personalities in Turkish Political and Intellectual Life Translation Project”, launched in 2019 by the Presidency of Atatürk Cultural Centre. This study will focus primarily on the Turkish texts prepared for translation in the project and the published works. The project aims to introduce the short biographies of personalities who have left their mark on Turkish culture, the history of science, and state administration, and who have distinguished themselves in their fields through their successful work and contributions, to Turkish and international youth aged 16-20.

The fact that the eight biographical volumes published within the scope of the AKMB translation project have been translated primarily into Arabic, German, Persian, French, English, and Russian demonstrates a distribution consistent with the project’s objective of reaching broad and diverse readerships across the globe. The inclusion of figures from distinct categories—such as scientists, statesmen, and a Sufi mystic—and the presence of both historical and modern personalities are factors that have directly shaped the linguistic characteristics of the texts.

Citation: Çetin, Hasan Ali (2026). “Turkish Source Texts of Presidency of Atatürk Cultural Center Translation Project with Special Reference to Translation of Biography from Turkish into Other Languages”, Erdem, June, Issue:90, pp. 67-98.