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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.
“...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
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