Uncoupling Language and Religion: An Exploration into the Margins of Turkish Literature

by Laurent Mignon

Overview

This 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644695791
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	05/18/2021
Series:	Ottoman and Turkish Studies
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Laurent Mignon is Associate Professor of Turkish at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the Middle East Centre at Saint Antony’s College. His research interests range from minority literatures in late Ottoman Turkey to literary engagements with non-Abrahamic religions in a Turkish context.

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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Uncoupling Language and Religion deals with topics, authors, and works of literature in Turkish that have long been neglected by Turkish and international literary historiography. The ‘uncoupling’ of language (Turkish) from religion (Islam) allows for the discussion of ‘forgotten’ themes and authors who were important agents during the formation period of modern Turkish literature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By looking at the works of Turkish-speaking Armenian, Greek, and Jewish writers as well as of Turkish-Muslim writers who had controversial ideas about the republican national ideology, layers in this literature become visible that prove the multifaceted connection between Turkish and European cultural and intellectual history. The question of what role religion played in the formation process of modern Turkish literature—not only Islam, but all three monotheistic world religions which existed side by side in the Ottoman Empire—is a particularly interesting subject in that context.”

—Börte Sagaster, Associate Professor, Department of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cyprus

“Laurent Mignon proposes a new, non-comprehensive, version of Turkish literary history which takes into consideration ongoing debates about the re-evaluation of the canon. He focuses on one century of works in Turkish starting in the 1850s, and sheds light on lesser-known and lesser-read authors selected from the heart of a still little-known history of literature in Turkey. Marginalized, forgotten or dismissed literati, often overlooked in the studies on a post-imperial culture generally considered to be monolingual, are at the heart of this study which reveals the radical originality of those authors who bridged the long period between the end of the decaying empire and the early years of the burgeoning Republic. This study also uncovers the fascinating intermingling of languages and alphabets that were quickly obliterated by the new cultural policies of Mustafa Kemal’s autocratic state. The ‘wall of unspokenness,’ to borrow a term coined by the novelist Bilge Karasu (1930-1995), surrounding non-Muslim and women’s literary contributions, is here challenged: Prof. Laurent Mignon manages to introduce a fascinating and unchartered continent to Western readers, fueling our desire for more ‘refuse and ruins of history.’”

—Timour Muhidine, Associate Professor, Inalco, Paris

Editorial Reviews

...Uncoupling Language and Religion is a welcome contribution to critical English language scholarship on Turkish literature. For Armenian studies, such a project’s value is as great as it is obvious... Mignon’s latest entry is a necessary, and emphatic, leap in that direction.”

— Aram Ghoogasian, Princeton University, Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies

“Mignon’s well-researched book is a substantial achievement. It opens new avenues for the evaluation of literatures written in Turkish in and outside Turkey. Uncoupling Language and Religion serves as a model for comparative analyses of national literatures, where canonized names often overshadow the contributions of marginalized literary figures across the globe.”

—- Beyza Lorenz, University of California Los Angeles, Turkish Studies

“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

From the Publisher