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Turkish literature abroad

       Murathan Mungan 'writes for PEN Atlas about how East and West view each other, what Henry James could have learnt from Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil and the building of a new Tower of Babel', in The Silk Road.
       Among the points he makes:
Another issue is that for the books of both large and small countries from around the world, achieving translation and publication relies on receiving a seal of approval from Western centres. They're not free to make their own discoveries. For example, if a Norwegian or Spanish or Japanese or Egyptian writer is to encounter a Turkish writer, that writer has to have already been encountered by the West. In the end, this situation creates a vicious cycle. Since they look out at the world in order to find original material, what they are bound to find is not the world staring back at them but their own reflections in the mirror. Instead of seeking anomalies or eccentricities from the around the world, the epicentres of Anglo-Saxon culture seek only those works that fit into their own literary currents and trends.
       I'm not sure it's quite that bad, but it's certainly true for much of what is published -- and it is something readers should keep in mind, or at least be aware of.

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