Utopia’s Turkish Translations and Utopianism in Turkish Literature

This article describes the literary and academic interest in Thomas More’s Utopia in Turkish literature and its translations into Turkish. More’s text as a historically and literarily significant work appeals to academia and the general reader through its widespread reception in Turkey. This article also presents a brief survey of utopianism and a critical approach to some selected translations in terms of paratextual elements, language, and translators’ domestication or foreignization preferences in these translations. It renders a brief list of some exemplary Turkish utopias and dystopias and touches on the repercussions of the utopian impulse in Turkish representations of alternative social orders. The article therefore aims to inform international scholars about the existence of constant interest in utopia in Turkey through an analytical interpretation of a selection of translations of More’s Utopia and to thus contribute to a broader understanding of More’s influence.