Towards Turkish American Literature

Abstract

was a prominent scholar, author, political activist, and one of Turkey's first and most vocal feminists; she is remembered as a "figure of controversy in modern Turkish history" (Göknar, Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy 150). She fought in Atatürk's army in the War of Independence, earning the nickname of "Corporal Halide. " Once one of Kemal's closest collaborators, Edip subsequently lost the favor of the Turkish leader, who branded her a traitor and publicly maligned her as the woman who "wanted an American mandate" over Turkey (ibid.). She and her husband chose self-exile in England and France. Edip travelled extensively, also to the United States, where she delivered lectures and public talks. Her literary production in English strives to present Turkish history and culture to European and American readers. She returned to Turkey in 1939 to embark on a political and academic career in her homeland. The autobiographical and non-fictional works she originally wrote and published in English in the 1920s and 1930s (Memoirs of Halide Edip in 1926, The Turkish Ordeal in 1928, and Turkey Faces West in 1930) were not translated into Turkish until the 1960s, when her status as a scholar and a patriot was re-evaluated. Güneli Gün was born in Turkey in 1939. She is the author of Book of Trances: A Novel of Magic Recitals (1979) and On the Road to Baghdad (1994). Based in Ohio, she taught creative writing and women's studies at Oberlin College. She became known as Orhan Pamuk's translator, as she authored the first English translations of The New Life (Yeni Hayat, 1994; tr. 1998) and The Black Book (Kara Kitap, 1990; tr. 1995). In 2006, Maureen Freely revised and re-published both translations. Gün's writing incorporates elements of magical realism and North American postmodernism, and draws inspiration from Ottoman folklore and the One Thousand and One Nights. Her literary production, especially On the Road to Baghdad, is marked by the influence of the American postmodern author John Barth, who claimed to have "served as a midwife in [Gün's] delivery upon our writing scene" (Kadir 63). Born in Izmir, Alev Lytle Croutier moved to the U.S. when she was 18. She studied comparative literature in Oberlin, Ohio. Eventually she moved to San Francisco where she founded a publishing firm called Mercury House. She is the author of two novels (The Palace of Tears, 2000, and Seven Houses, 2002), non-fictional works (Harem: The World behind the Veil, 1989, and Taking the Waters, 1992) and numerous articles and contributions to anthologies. In her interviews and non-fictional works, Croutier frequently reported being the granddaughter of a harem lady. This sapient self-exoticization allowed her to 9 I am aware that 'Turkish literature' is, per se, a contested notion; yet, it is beyond the aim of this study to define what Turkish literature is. Erdağ Göknar uses the terms "Turkish literary field" (Göknar, "Secular Blasphemies" 305), "Turkish literary context" (302), and "Turkish literary modernity" (312) to express literary activ...

Literature and the legacy of Empire: Approaching Turkey’s post-imperial condition through Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar

“…While the scholarly engagement with Empire in the Turkish context is predominantly focused on contemporary neo-imperialist trends in politics and society (see e.g. Walton 2021;Yavuz 2022;Haug and Roychoudhury 2023), there are also some studies approaching Turkish literature through the lens of post-imperiality (Günay-Erkol 2012;Furlanetto 2017;Kučera 2017;Chovanec 2021). In light of this 'imperial turn' in the humanities and social sciences (Bachmann-Medick 2016, 279f; see also Burton 2003;Mikhail and Philliou 2012), cultural and literary studies have established the importance of literature in the making and dissemination of imaginations of Empire that reach well beyond literary spheres and also co-shape political discourses.…”