Towards Turkish American Literature
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Interamericana 10 10 Interamericana 10 Elena Furlanetto Elena Furlanetto Elena Furlanetto Elena Furlanetto Towards Turkish American Literature The author expands the definition of decisively prevails over the American Towards Turkish Turkish American literature beyond (Güneli Gün’s On the Road to Baghdad fiction written by Americans of Turkish and Alev Lytle Croutier’s Seven Houses). descent to incorporate texts that literally American Literature ‘commute’ between two national spheres. This segment of Turkish American liter- ature transcends established paradigms The Author Narratives of Multiculturalism of immigrant life-writing, as it includes Elena Furlanetto received her MA in Eng- works by Turkish authors who do not lish, American, and Postcolonial Studies in Post-Imperial Turkey qualify as American permanent residents from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and were not born in the United States by and her PhD in American Studies from Turkish parents (such as Elif Shafak and the Technical University of Dortmund. Halide Edip). It also includes novels in She works as a researcher and lecturer at which the Turkish and Ottoman matter the University of Duisburg-Essen. Towards Turkish American Turkish LiteratureTowards ISBN 978-3-631-67724-7 Interamericana 10 10 Interamericana 10 Elena Furlanetto Elena Furlanetto Elena Furlanetto Elena Furlanetto Towards Turkish American Literature The author expands the definition of decisively prevails over the American Towards Turkish Turkish American literature beyond (Güneli Gün’s On the Road to Baghdad fiction written by Americans of Turkish and Alev Lytle Croutier’s Seven Houses). descent to incorporate texts that literally American Literature ‘commute’ between two national spheres. This segment of Turkish American liter- ature transcends established paradigms The Author Narratives of Multiculturalism of immigrant life-writing, as it includes Elena Furlanetto received her MA in Eng- works by Turkish authors who do not lish, American, and Postcolonial Studies in Post-Imperial Turkey qualify as American permanent residents from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and were not born in the United States by and her PhD in American Studies from Turkish parents (such as Elif Shafak and the Technical University of Dortmund. Halide Edip). It also includes novels in She works as a researcher and lecturer at which the Turkish and Ottoman matter the University of Duisburg-Essen. Towards Turkish American Turkish LiteratureTowards Towards Turkish American Literature INTERAMERICANA INTER-AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY AND CULTURE HISTORIA LITERARIA INTERAMERICANA Y SUS CONTEXTOS CULTURALES HISTOIRE LITTERAIRE ET CULTURE INTERAMERICAINES Editors: Marietta Messmer (University of Groningen / editor-in-chief), Barbara Buchenau (University of Duisburg-Essen), Michael Drexler (Bucknell University), Graciela Martínez-Zalce Sánchez (Univ. Nacional Autónoma de México) and Gabriele Pisarz-Ramirez (University of Leipzig) Reviewers and Advisors: Ralph Bauer (University of Maryland), Robert Dion (University of Québec at Montreal), Yolanda Minerva Campos García (Universidad de Guadalajara), Manfred Engelbert (University of California at Los Angeles), Earl Fitz (Van- derbilt University at Nashville), Carole Gerson (Simon Fraser University at Burnaby/B.C.), Daniel Göske (University of Kassel), Markus Heide (Uppsala University), Djelal Kadir (Pennsylvania State University), Efraín Kristal (University of California at Los Angeles), Kurt Mueller-Vollmer (Stanford University), Carla Mulford (Pennsylvania State University), Denis St. Jacques (Laval University at Québec) and Jeanette den Toonder (University of Groningen) VOLUME 10 Notes on the quality assurance and peer review of this publication: Prior to publication, the quality of the works published in this series is reviewed by external referees appointed by the editorship. Elena Furlanetto Towards Turkish American Literature Narratives of Multiculturalism in Post-Imperial Turkey Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Zugl.: Dortmund, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2015 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Furlanetto, Elena, author. Title: Towards Turkish American literature : narratives of multiculturalism in post-imperial Turkey / Elena Furlanetto. Description: Frankfurt am Main ; New York : Peter Lang, 2017. | Series: Interamerican ; Vol. 10 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016056957 | ISBN 9783631677247 Subjects: LCSH: Turkish literature—American influences. | Turkish literature—History and criticism. | Multiculturalism in literature. | Postcolonialism in literature. | Sufism in literature. | Turks in literature. | Turkish-Americans. Classification: LCC PL205 .F87 2017 | DDC 894/.3509—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016056957 Cover image: Courtesy of the Osher Map Library, University of Southern Maine The electronic version of this book is freely available due to funding by OGeSoMo, a BMBF-project to support and analyse open access book publications in the humanities and social sciences (BMBF: Federal Ministry of Education and Research). The project is led by the University Library of Duisburg-Essen. For more information see https://www.uni-due.de/ogesomo. D 290 ISSN 1618-419X - ISBN 978-3-631-67724-7 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-07229-7 (E-PDF) - E-ISBN 978-3-631-70905-4 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-70906-1 (MOBI) - DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-07229-7 Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 unported license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © Elena Furlanetto, 2017 Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Peter Lang – Berlin ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙ Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com To my parents. Who lifted me up so that I could play with the stars. Table of Contents I. Introduction: What is (not) Turkish American Literature .......11 The Significance of the United States in Turkish American Literature .....21 Turkish American Literature and the “Transnational Turn” .........................28 A Gentle Empire ........................................................................................... 28 ‘Unearthing’ and Embracing the Colonial Past ........................................ 33 Beyond Empire: A Postcolonial Reading of Turkish American Literature ...........................................................................................36 The Postcoloniality of Turkey ..................................................................... 38 Turkish American Literature and the Postcolonial Imagery .................. 40 Postcolonialism and Resistance: A Critical Perspective on Turkish American Literature ...................................................................... 45 II. Imaginary Spaces: Representations of Istanbul between Topography and Imagination ................................................................49 The Unplaceability of Orhan Pamuk ......................................................... 51 Orhan Pamuk: Overground and Underground Istanbul ........................ 59 “Safe Spaces of the Like-Minded”: Elif Shafak’s Cafés ............................. 63 Becoming Someone Else: Imitation and Truthfulness ............................ 65 ‘Authenticity’ and Americanization ........................................................... 70 Integration and Segregation: Shall the Twain Meet? ............................... 76 The Ottoman Utopia ..........................................................................................91 Utopia and Empire ....................................................................................... 93 Ottoman Utopia and Neo-Ottomanism .................................................... 97 “Hrant Dink’s Dream” ................................................................................ 100 Life in the Islands and in the Villages ...................................................... 103 Two Approaches to Cultural Identity ...................................................... 110 7 III. Rewriting History, Rewriting Religion ........................................... 115 Between Imperialism and “Wholesome Curiosity”: Halide Edip’s Benevolent America. ............................................................... 116 Imperialism and Humanitarianism ......................................................... 120 True Christians and very Unchristian Christians: American Humanitarianism in the Empire Territories ........................................... 122 An Imaginary Us and an Imaginary Them ............................................. 126 Ferries and Orphanages: Rewriting the Legacy of Edip’s Memoirs .......... 130 Hullabaloo on the Bosphorus Ferry: The Development of Othering Strategies from “Borrowed Colonialism” to Nationalism ..... 131 Ferries Rewritten: Elif Shafak’s “Life in the Islands” ............................... 137 Little Stories of Independence: Orphanages ........................................... 139 Towards Ottoman Sisterhood ................................................................... 143 Women and Children First: Founding a ‘Subaltern’ Religion .................... 146 Halide Edip: Rethinking Prophets and Fathers of the Nation .............. 147 Sufi Madonna with