At the heart of The Republic of Love are the voices of three musicians—queer nightclub star Zeki M?ren, arabesk originator Orhan Gencebay, and pop diva Sezen Aksu—who collectively have dominated mass media in Turkey since the early 1950s. Their fame and ubiquity have made them national icons—but, Martin Stokes here contends, they do not represent the official version of Turkish identity propagated by anthems or flags; instead they evoke a much more intimate and ambivalent conception of Turkishness.Using these three singers as a lens, Stokes examines Turkey’s repressive politics and civil violence as well as its uncommonly vibrant public life in which music, art, literature, sports, and journalism have flourished. However, Stokes’s primary concern is how M?ren, Gencebay, and Aksu’s music and careers can be understood in light of theories of cultural intimacy. In particular, he considers their contributions to the development of a Turkish concept of love, analyzing the ways these singers explore the private matters of intimacy, affection, and sentiment on the public stage.
Author(s): Martin Stokes
Series: Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 239
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 8
Note on Orthography, Notational Conventions, and Names......Page 14
List of Illustrations......Page 18
1. Introduction......Page 20
2. Zeki Müren: Sun of Art, Ideal Citizen......Page 54
3. The Affectionate Modernism of Orhan Gencebay......Page 92
4. Why Cry? Sezen Aksu’s Diva Citizenship......Page 126
5. Three Versions of “Beloved Istanbul”......Page 166
6. Conclusion......Page 208
Sources......Page 214
Index......Page 232
