This book presents gendered readings of cultural manifestations that relate to the Ottoman era as a preferred past and a model for the future. By means of claims of authenticity and the distribution of imaginaries of a homogenous desirable alternative to everyday concerns, as well as invoking an imperial past at the national level. In this mode of thinking, shaped around a polarised worldview, Republican ideals serve as a counter-image to the promoted splendour and harmony of the Ottomans. Yet, the stereotypical gender roles inextricably linked with this neo-Ottoman imaginary remain largely unacknowledged, dissimulated in the construction of the desire of an idealised past. Our adaption of a cultural studies perspective in this volume puts special emphasis on agency, gender, and authority. It provides a shared ground for the interrogation, through the contributions comprising this project of knowledge production about the past in light of what constitutes acceptable legitimacy in interpreting not only the canonical literature, but history at large.
Author(s): Catharina Raudvere, Petek Onur
Series: Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 330
City: Cham
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Chapter 1: “I am the Granddaughter of the Ottomans”: Gender, Aesthetics and Agency in Neo-Ottoman Imaginaries—An Introduction
A Desirable Past, Homogeneous Fellowships and Fixed Roles
Imaginaries of a Future Past
Religion, Heritage and Belonging
Gender During the AKP Regime
Communicating Heritage and History, Building Identities
Neo-Ottomanism’s Elusive Cultural Authority
References
Chapter 2: Neo-Ottomanism versus Ottomania: Contestation of Gender in Historical Drama
Neo-Ottomanism versus Ottomania
A Feminised-Private Sphere: Gender Anxieties in Ottomania and Neo-Ottomanism
Truth, Pleasure, and Anxieties
Magnificent Century: Popular Gone Wrong
Complex Characters
Powerful Women
Conspicuous Consumption and Authenticity
Resurrection: Ertuğrul: State-Endorsed Popular
Meet-Cute
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Lovers of the Rose: Islamic Affect and the Politics of Commemoration in Turkish Museal Display
Reviving Art, Contesting the Present
Museums, Nationalism, and Religion: Key Issues and Recent Trends
A New Museology: Critical Perspectives on Subjectivity, Materiality, Affect, and Representation
The Sacred and the City: Istanbul as a Ritual-Museal Memory Site
Re-Narrating, Ritualising, and Redeeming History in Turkish Memory Space
Expanding Memory Spaces: Visual-Ritual Commemoration in Public Space
Hilye-i Şerif: Commemoration, Affect, and Nationalism in Calligraphic Incorporation
Negotiating a Devotional Art Tradition in Contemporary Display
Re-Scripting the Prophetic Body
A Nation on Display under a Pious Gaze
Concluding Note: A Valentinisation of Islamic-Ottoman Memory
References
Chapter 4: Between Memory and Forgetting and Purity and Danger: The Case of the Ulucanlar Prison Museum
Situating the Ulucanlar Prison Museum Case Study
On Public Space, Museums, and Collective Memory in Turkey
On Neo-Ottomanism
The Space of the Prison Museum
Remembering Political Dissidents in the Prison Museum
Reading the Ulucanlar Prison Museum
Neo-Ottomanism and the Prison Museum
Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 5: Architectures of Domination? The Sacralisation of Modernity and the Limits of Ottoman Islamism
Sacralisation and Restoration: Islam, the Ottoman Empire, and the AKP
The Representative Architecture of the AKP Era
Re-enchanting Modern Cityscapes: The Hacıbayram Mosque and Neighbourhood
Diminishing the Republican Past in Ankara and Istanbul: Ulus and Taksim
The Atatürk Cultural Centre and the Taksim Mosque
Dominating the Present: Power and the Common Good
The Çamlıca Mosque
The Presidential Complex
Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: Claiming the Neo-Ottoman Mosque: Islamism, Gender, Architecture
The Birth of Neo-Ottoman Mosque
An Ambiguous Start: Islamism and Mosque Design
Representing Islamist Hegemony: (Re)producing Neo-Ottomanism
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Commemorating the First World War and Its Aftermath: Neo-Ottomanism, Gender, and the Politics of History in Turkey
Introduction
Re-envisaging the Empire through the Centennial Commemorations of the First World War
Suffering, Martyrdom, Victimhood
Imperial Visions
The Invisibility of Non-Muslim Soldiers and Genocide Denialism
Construction of Femininities through War Commemoration
Memorials for Heroines
Popularisation
Heroines in the Curriculum and Education
Conclusion
References
Chapter 8: The New Ottoman Henna Nights and Women in the Palace of Nostalgia
Transformation of Customs: Spaces, Symbols, and Womanhood
Creating a Space: Mansions, Alternative Spaces, and Creative Actors
Tools and Signs of Authenticity, Tradition, and Heritage Embedded in Entertainment
New Meanings, New Womanhoods
The Future of Nostalgia
References
Chapter 9: Post-truth and Anti-science in Turkey: Putting It into Perspective
Contextualising the Turkish Case
Neo-Ottoman Populism
Gender under the Rule of AKP
Trolling Science and Gendered Populist Discourse
Gender Equality vs. Gender Justice
Family Mainstreaming
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: Mixed Marriage Patterns in Istanbul: Gendering Ethno-religious Boundaries
Conditions for the non-Muslim Communities in Republican Turkey
Non-Muslims under the AKP Rule
Moving beyond Tolerance
Mixed Marriages within Rum, Jewish, and Armenian Communities
Gender Aspect of Mixed Marriages
Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 11: Neo-Ottoman Intersections: The Politics of Gender in a Transforming Turkey—An Afterword
Two Symbolic Acts
The Neo-Ottoman Lacuna of Gender Studies in Turkey
The Gender Lacuna of Neo-Ottomanism
Where the Twain Shall Meet: Gendering Neo-Ottomanism
References
Index
