Description
Book SynopsisThis book is an invitation to rethink our understanding of Turkish literature as a tale of two "others." The first part of the book examines the contributions of non-Muslim authors, the "others" of modern Turkey, to the development of Turkish literature during the late Ottoman and early republican period, focusing on the works of largely forgotten authors. The second part discusses Turkey as the "other" of the West and the way authors writing in Turkish challenged orientalist representations. Thus this book prepares the ground for a history of literature which uncouples language and religion and recreates the spaces of dialogue and exchange that have existed in late Ottoman Turkey between members of various ethno-religious communities.
Trade Review“Mignon’s “prose” is at the same time lucid and learned, rich and engrossing, attentive to details, yet not losing sight of the bigger picture – a remarkable achievement for a scholarly work…Mignon persistently digs the ground of the literary field to find buried treasures, original themes and subversive voices below the official façade of Turkish literary history.”
— Petr Kučera (Mainz), Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Conventions
- Introduction: In the Footsteps of Baha Tevfik
- Part One: Rethinking Literature in Turkish
- 1. The Revolution of the Letters
- 2. The Roses of the Anatolian Garden
- 3. The "Refuse and Ruins" of Literary History
- 4. Beyond Atala: Vartan Pasha, Zafer Hanım, and the Romantic Rebellion
- 5. "La lengua ke se avla aki": Jewish Literature in "the Language Spoken Here"
- Part Two: Challenging Orientalism
- 6. Samuel Hirsch, Namık Kemal, and Orientalism
- 7. Ali Kemal's Forgotten Adventure in the Desert
- 8. Nâzım Hikmet and the Demystification of the East
- Conclusion: To Do or Not to Do God: On Transgression, Literature and Religion
- Bibliography
