The pseudotranslations of the 1940s and 1950s were part of a private marketplace, existing alongside a state-regulated publishing market. Working from Bourdieu, JeanMarc Gouanvic writes, 

Published translations enter into the logic of the cultural marketplace. In Western liberal economies […] what regulates the production, distribution and consumption of cultural goods everywhere is the law of the market place, free enterprise, and "laissezfaire". (Gouanvic 1997:127)

That was not so much the case in Turkey, especially in the 1940s. The state, with considerable support from the intelligentsia, was trying to create a market for Western classics through its own production and distribution mechanism. The pseudotranslation series stand in contrast to that attempt as an example of commercial publishing without an underlying social or political agenda. Although intellectuals criticized the series harshly, these publications met a real demand for reading material in a section of the public not catered for by the state or private publishers of canonical literature.

However, if we should call this form of publishing a merely commercial endeavor, severed from what we might refer to as publishing with a socio-political agenda, this does not mean it was an isolated form without any cultural role to play. The pseudotranslations of the 1940s and 1950s were very much a part of the book market. They were thus among the factors determining the success of the culture planning partly carried out through publications of canonized Western literature. As Even-Zohar writes,

Since, by definition, the implementation of culture planning entails the introduction of change into a current state of affairs, the prospects of success also depend on an effective exploitation of market conditions. The chance for the planning to be frustrated may therefore be expected constantly. (Even-Zohar 1994:12)

The popularity of the series does show at least one instance where the planning reinforcing the translation of canonized works was frustrated. The publishers and authors of pseudotranslations may have been commercially driven, but the cultural and literary implications of their works mean that a solely commercial explanation would be reductionist.

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