Wanted: Literature Expert

Two trials on two different international bestsellers were tried on Wednesday (18 January) before the Çağlayan (Istanbul) 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance. The cases against the Turkish translations of the books Snuff and The Soft Machine were opened based on reports prepared by the Prime Ministry Board for the Protection of Children from Harmful Publications.

The first session was handling Chuck Palahniuk's book Snuff published by Ayrıntı Publishing with publisher Hasan Basri Çıplak and translator Funda Uncu in the dock.

Defendant Çıplak reiterated his defence and requested an expert to assess the literarily quality of the work. The court decided to have the original of the book investigated by an expert.

Interpreter Uncu and publishing house owner Çıplak face charges of "procuring the publishing of obscene publications"

Expert cannot be found

Similarly, İrfan Sancı, General Publications Director of Sel Publishing, and translator Süha Sertabiboğlu stand trial for translating and publishing the Turkish version of The Soft Machine written by William Burroughs.

Both Sancı and Sertabiboğlu requested at previous hearings to send the book to a Department of Comparative Literature and have an expert report prepared accordingly. It turned out now that the book was not sent to any expert. It was announced at court that the experts on the list refused to investigate the book and that the court was still trying to find an expert.

Turkey - a unique case?

According to Sel Publishing, thereupon the lawyers recommended experts from departments of Comparative Literature and Western Language.

İrfan Sancı once more reminded that the decision whether a work was literature or not could not be given based on the report of any board.

"This book is freely read and published as a work of literature all over the world. Did it just occur to the Turks to investigate its literarily quality?" he questioned. The judge replied, "It has to be investigated too whether the translation was done properly".

Sancı responded that this could be done "and decided" by the Association of Translators.

Sancı remarked that this kind of trial was unique in the world and that only in Turkey works of literature were alleged of obscenity. The judge on the other hand referred to similar cases tried before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and to the book of a French writer that had been subject to trial.

Sancı answered that this was Guillaume Apollinaire's book Eleven Thousand Rods and that the Turkish government was eventually convicted by the ECHR.

The Soft Machine" by William S. Burroughs as an important representative of the Beat Generation is part of The Nova Trilogy and was first published in 1961. The translation done by Süha Sertabiboğlu was published by Sel Publishing in January 2011.

Both trials were again postponed to the same day on 13 March 2012. (YY/VK)