Shafak on Fiction and Translation

I found this story today on NPR and must say that listening to Shafak speak about her writing and translation really helps understand her approach to literature.  Within the recording, Shafak outlines the importance of the writing process to her stating roughly that fiction is the ability to transcend your own self and move into another person's shoes, to experience life from their point of view, and therefore can cross the boundaries of race, class, religion, gender, ethnicity, and all other sort of binarisms.  This point is extremely interesting in regards to the ways in which American's generally conceive of fiction.  Usually we believe or expect some aspect of authorial truth within fiction.  Think of the myth that fiction or poetry must be some sort of reflection of the inner soul, something you feel so passionately about that you must  pour onto the page.  For Shafak, this is not the way in which fiction works.  To a certain extent Shafak's definition of fiction as a method of traveling outside of ourselves and into another person's world is perfect for a class on Post-Colonial Literature, but I still question the degree to which Shafak removes herself from her work. Immediately after stating that fiction is a sort of metaphysical embodiment of another person, Shafak continues to state that everything in her life permeates her work.  She cites the example of teaching in the classroom and finding a question a student asked reappear within a text.  Obviously, Shafak's writing is both an exploration of transcultural boundaries as well as a reflection of her own beliefs. 

Shafak also speaks within the interview on the subject of language and states that translation and writing are completely different phenomena.  A translator is charged with the task of repeating rhythems, cadences, and patterns found within one language in the translation.  This task, as Shafak asserts, is simply impossible to do without changing the meaning of the text to a great degree.  Shafak also states that when she writes in Turkish as opposed to English she discovers a different authorial voice.  In this manner, Shafak's conceptions of language mirror those of her writing allowing her to essentially explore aspects of agency and identity within her work as well as the processes of writing.