A Critic-Writer and Translator with his Habitus, Cultural and Symbolic Capital: Nurullah ATAÇ

Abstract

In this study, Nurullah Ataç, one of the important writers, translators and critics of the Republican era, is the subject of research with all his aspects. When focusing especially on his translator identity, it is also necessary to analyze Nurullah Ataç’s author and critic identities, which feed his translatorship. Within the scope of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of Habitus and Capital, Ataç’s identity as a critic, writer and translator is examined. Because these identities, which are connected to each other by an invisible bond, become visible with Ataç’s habitus, cultural and symbolic capital. Although habitus shows individual characteristics, cultural capital and associated symbolic capital also have variable characteristics according to the individual. It is not possible to expect these notions to be the same and equal in every individual. As the dominant factors in the background that provide the formation of existing notions have variable characteristics according to the individual, family and millieu, each individual has to be evaluated separately in terms of these concepts.

The concept of habitus, which has a very important place in Bourdieu’s theory of social field, is based on Aristotle’s concept of hexis, which was acquired through education and includes the behaviors and attitudes of the individual. Bourdieu feeds the habitus theory with the essence of the concept of hexis, but he creates a complete theoretical background and expands the content of the concept taken from Aristotle. Habitus is a flexible, changeable and transferable tendency that occurs when the individual starts to socialize and his / her individual characteristics are nourished from the field and the environment. On the other hand, the theory of capital, is taken from the concept of capital, which is used in determining the positions of individuals, economically based by Karl Marx, with each other in the social plane. It is possible to analyze the individual’s capital in economic, cultural and symbolic contexts. Concepts of capital mostly feed each other by transforming into each other. The transformation of economic capital into cultural capital, and sometimes, cultural capital into economic capital is possible. Ultimately, any of these capitals are transformed into symbolic capital.

Examining Ataç’s especially the translator and author identities within the scope of this theory of sociology provides important data to analyze his habitus characteristics, cultural and symbolic capital. The fact that Ataç’s habitus started to take shape within his family from the moment he was born, his family members have an intellectual accumulation, and Nurullah Ataç, by using the opportunities of his father Ata’s economic capital, firstly obtained cultural capital and then economic capital, constitute important analysis data for this study. The impacts of Ataç’s habitus, cultural and symbolic capital on his translation and authorship are examined in the light of these theoretical approaches.