Five Books To Understand Modern Turkey
Today's Turkey is a very interesting case. A country trying hardly (and so far unsuccessfully) to enter the EU, evolving (this time with big chances) into the main regional power in the Mid East, the only Muslim country in NATO, and (as it always has been), in a unique position between Asia and Europe, between East and West, between tradition and modernity.
Sometimes, to understand a country, you should start by reading some books about it. A good book is a gateway to a new universe: a universe that's new either because you don't know virtually anything about it, or because you know too much.
Turkish novelist Elif Shafak suggests reading about Turkey these five books:
Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber - The Everyday of Modern Turkey
Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber - Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey is composed of numerous essays by leading scholars in different fields. It goes in many directions with a fresh eye: from cinema to black humor, from the transsexuals of Istanbul to the globalized middle class.
Sibel Bozdogan and Resat Kasaba - Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey
Sibel Bozdogan and Resat Kasaba - Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey is also a collection of articles dealing with the dialectics of the Turkish society since the 1980s: the evolution of institutions, of family and the way gender issues are considered, the relationship between Islam and the secular state.
Meyda Yegenoglu - Colonial Fantasies
Meyda Yegenoglu - Colonial Fantasies is not a book about Turkey per se. Elif Shafack still recommends it if one wants to get a better understanding of the region, the veil, and the question of otherness.
How do we create in our collective conscience the notion of the other? How do we construct the idea that we (the Westerners) are different and better than them (all the others)? A book of Ryszard Kapuściński comes to my mind: The Other.
Well, this other is what the book of Meyda Yegenoglu is about: a post-feminist approach, provocative and innovative. Says Elif Shafak, we are not used to seeing concepts such as desire and fantasy parading in books on the Middle East, but this book is different.
John Freely - Istanbul: Imperial City
John Freely - Istanbul: Imperial City, a book about the past, which, believes Elif Shafak, is important to understand the background of the country. Well, she is fascinated about Istanbul, which is felt like a she-city, a city with a female personality. I will come back to this, because it seems to be one of the crucial ideas in the writings of Elif Shafak.
Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Gokmen - Tales from Expat Harem
Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Gokmen - Tales from Expat Harem collects the stories of foreign women who lived in Turkey for shorter or longer periods. Says Elif Shafak, it is a colorful, humanistic and sincere collection of women voices. In this book you will find cultural, social and everyday life details you wouldn’t easily encounter within the confines of mainstream academic literature.
(Elif Shafak)
Sometimes, to understand a country, you should start by reading some books about it. A good book is a gateway to a new universe: a universe that's new either because you don't know virtually anything about it, or because you know too much.
Turkish novelist Elif Shafak suggests reading about Turkey these five books:
Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber - The Everyday of Modern TurkeyDeniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber - Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey is composed of numerous essays by leading scholars in different fields. It goes in many directions with a fresh eye: from cinema to black humor, from the transsexuals of Istanbul to the globalized middle class.
Sibel Bozdogan and Resat Kasaba - Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in TurkeySibel Bozdogan and Resat Kasaba - Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey is also a collection of articles dealing with the dialectics of the Turkish society since the 1980s: the evolution of institutions, of family and the way gender issues are considered, the relationship between Islam and the secular state.
Meyda Yegenoglu - Colonial FantasiesMeyda Yegenoglu - Colonial Fantasies is not a book about Turkey per se. Elif Shafack still recommends it if one wants to get a better understanding of the region, the veil, and the question of otherness.
How do we create in our collective conscience the notion of the other? How do we construct the idea that we (the Westerners) are different and better than them (all the others)? A book of Ryszard Kapuściński comes to my mind: The Other.
Well, this other is what the book of Meyda Yegenoglu is about: a post-feminist approach, provocative and innovative. Says Elif Shafak, we are not used to seeing concepts such as desire and fantasy parading in books on the Middle East, but this book is different.
John Freely - Istanbul: Imperial CityJohn Freely - Istanbul: Imperial City, a book about the past, which, believes Elif Shafak, is important to understand the background of the country. Well, she is fascinated about Istanbul, which is felt like a she-city, a city with a female personality. I will come back to this, because it seems to be one of the crucial ideas in the writings of Elif Shafak.
Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Gokmen - Tales from Expat HaremAnastasia Ashman and Jennifer Gokmen - Tales from Expat Harem collects the stories of foreign women who lived in Turkey for shorter or longer periods. Says Elif Shafak, it is a colorful, humanistic and sincere collection of women voices. In this book you will find cultural, social and everyday life details you wouldn’t easily encounter within the confines of mainstream academic literature.
(Elif Shafak)
Labels: Elif Shafak
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