Rewriting The American Dream: Ahmet Mithat’s Narrative Of The New World

Abstract

19th century is a period marked by intensified and structuralized modernization efforts in the Ottoman Empire. The declaration of Tanzimat initiated the transformation process on the social and political level. Meanwhile, introduction of the popular Western novel genre into the Ottoman literary system through translation served as an effective literary tool to convey the critiques and new ideas on Westernization to a wider population. The second quarter of the nineteenth century, was marked by the prolific publication of translations from the French and the adoption of European popular genre, the novel. The introduction of the Western novel as a new genre created a new area of discussion on the conduct of translation as well. Ahmet Mithat, a pivotal figure of the Tanzimat period, stands out as one of the pioneers of the novel genre with his novels, adaptations and translations. Being an attractive subject for the translation studies, Mithat’s works provide vivid examples of traditional Ottoman translation and text-production practices. Mithat was also the first to produce fictional works on America. These works shed light on how Mithat, and indeed the Ottoman intelligentsia, perceived the New World. This article delves into Mithat's adaptation and/or rewriting of the short story “Amour et Galvanoplastie” by Oscar Michon, published in Le Figaro in 1885, and René Lefébvre’s fictional work Paris en Amérique published in 1863 which came out as Fenni Bir Roman Yahut Amerika Doktorları (A Scientific Novel or American Doctors) in 1888. By drawing upon André Lefevere's concept of rewriting, I will argue that Mithat rewrites Michon’s satirical piece and Lefébvre’s pro-American fictional novel and thereby recreates an imagined America to his readers from an Occidentalist perspective.