Analyzing the Turkish Popular Literature Translation in the First Parts of the Twentieth Century: The Case of Güven Publishing House*

This article explores how the sociopolitical climate of early twentieth-century Türkiye shaped the translation and circulation of popular fiction, focusing particularly on the role of Güven Publishing House, an influential yet understudied actor active between 1923 and 1960. Rather than treating translation trends of the period in abstract terms, the study takes Güven’s publishing activity as a concrete entry point for understanding how popular genres—detective fiction, historical adventure narratives, and other forms of mass-market storytelling—traveled from English into Turkish and reached a rapidly expanding readership. Building on Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar’s The Politics and Poetics of Translation in Turkey, the article situates Güven within the broader literary and cultural environment of the early Republic, a time when translation was not merely a linguistic practice but part of a larger cultural negotiation. By examining selected works from the publisher’s catalog, the study highlights the strategies used in their translation—abridgment, adaptation, domestication, and, at times, pseudotranslation—and considers why these choices may have appealed to contemporary readers. The discussion ultimately aims to shed light on how Güven Publishing House became a pioneering player in popular fiction translation and how its output intersected with Türkiye’s shifting social, economic, and political landscape. Keywords: Turkish popular literature translation, early twentieth century, translation studies, Turkish–English literary translation, publishing history