The Bittersweet Taste of the Past: Reading Food in Armenian Literature in Turkish Muge Salmaner A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: Selim Sirri Kuru, Chair Resat Kasaba Gillian Harkins Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Near and Middle Eastern Studies Group ©Copyright 2014 Muge Salmaner University of Washington Abstract The Bittersweet Taste of the Past: Reading Food in Armenian Literature in Turkish Muge Salmaner Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Selim Sirri Kuru Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization This dissertation investigates Armenian literature in Turkish through the two authors Takuhi Tovmasyan and Mıgırdiç Margosyan by analyzing their literary works with an emphasis on food. By putting the traumatic experiences and the memories of 1915 in the cultural contexts of daily lives such as through music, food, and art, Armenians in Turkey found alternative ways to speak about their silenced past and create spaces in which to be heard. These spaces in Tovmasyan and Margosyan’s case are the kitchen, the table and the market place. Reading food in literary works written by Tovmasyan and Margosyan enables us to understand and articulate the Armenian experience in Turkey since the 1990s. Food might be considered one of the “safest” topics to talk about the “other”, especially when the other is integrated into the dominant culture and safely visible to the dominant gaze by stripping off its traumatic past. However, food items with their sensual properties trigger the memories of the past through smell, taste and hearing and they become important tools to remember and reconstruct the past in present conditions. This dissertation tries to answer questions such as: when a group of people continuously endure erasure and become voiceless in the face of mainstream culture, how does this group speak back in order to become visible? What are the cultural and literary tools that an ethnic community uses to reconcile with the past and get recognition in the mainstream culture? In order to find an answer to these questions, Margosyan and Tovmasyan’s self narratives which are written in different literary genres are investigated. This dissertation project suggests developing an interdisciplinary approach to literature and food studies in contemporary Armenian literature in Turkish. In short, by analyzing the representation of their daily lives and its relation to the past through food performances I show how Margosyan and Tovmasyan speak back to the dominant culture in Turkey. Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………..iii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 - Writing from the Margins: the Contemporary Armenian Literature in Turkish Publishing Scene ……………………………………………………..4 - Post 80s Armenian literature for a Turkish Audience………………………..…7 - Why Food Instead of Trauma……………………………………………..……12 - Mıgırdiç Margosyan: An “Infidel” in the Homeland…………………………..13 - Takuhi Tovmasyan: Another “Infidel”; Another Story……………...…………15 - Chapters in this Dissertation……………………………………………………16 Chapter 1: Food as a Literary Device in Armenian Literature in Turkish Methodologies - What is food?...................................................................................................22 - Individual & Collective Selves in relation to Food…………………...….….25 - Food in Self-Narratives………………………………………………...……31 - Cookbooks as Self-Narratives………………………………………..…..….33 - Autobiographical stories and novels in relation to food narratives………….39 - Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………42 Chapter 2: Traces of Loss and Displacement in Takuhi Tovmasyan’s Cookbook Memoir……………………………………………………………………….45 - The Structure of the Book………………………………………………..…..48 - Characters: People Long Gone…………………………….………...……....54 - Spatial Organization: Stories of Displacement………………………...…….61 i - Temporal Organization: Time to Eat..……………………………………….70 - Conclusion………………………….………………………………….…….77 Chapter 3: Food Memories and Nostalgia in Margosyan’s Autobiographical Stories………………………….…………………….…………………………….…….79 - The Structure of the storybooks……………………………………..………83 - Spatial Organization ………………………………..……………………….88 - Temporal Organization ………………………………..……………….……91 - Malez and the Maternal World………………………………………………93 - Bread and the Social World……………………………………………..…...96 - Food’s Role in Organizing: Family – Community…………………………105 - Identity In Question……………………………………….………………..114 - Conclusion………………………………………………………………….120 Chapter 4: Exilic Sensibilities and Food Narratives in “Tespih Taneleri”…...………..122 - Structure of the Book……………………………………………………….126 - Instrumental role of food in Diyarbakır…………………………………….127 - Disciplinary role of food in İstanbul………………………………………..135 - Little Anatolia in İstanbul…………………………………………………..146 - Conclusion………………………………………………………………….148 Conclusion: Food and its consequences………………………………………………..150 Appendix: Tovmasyan Interview Transcription in Turkish…………..………………...156 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………174 ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Selim S. Kuru, for the patient guidance and mentorship he provided me with, all the way from when I first started studying at the UW as a Master’s student in the NELC Department to the completion of this degree. His intellectual excellence is matched only by his genuinely kind nature and humility, and I am truly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him. I would also like to thank my committee members Drs. Reşat Kasaba and Gillian Harkins for their genuine guidance as well as their thought provoking and challenging suggestions that helped me grow intellectually over the years. In a similar vein I’d like to recognize Drs. Francisco Benitez, Walter Andrews, Vicente Rafael, Amanda Swarr, Laurie Sears and Leroy Searle for the intellectual contributions that each of them had during my years of study at the University of Washington. I am forever indebted to my teachers. Furthermore, I would like to thank my friends and colleagues in Turkish Circle at the University of Washington, led by Dr. Kasaba. The Circle has been one of the most beneficial sources where I had the opportunity to share and receive feedback for each chapter of this dissertation. Turkish Circle has benefited a lot of graduate students who are now mostly professors themselves all over the globe and I hope it will continue with Dr. Kasaba’s leadership to guide more graduate students. I would like to thank to Zeynep Seviner: my colleague, my wonderful friend and my honorary “adviser” who has been an indispensable contributor to this dissertation with her suggestions and editing. We have been through a lot, from sharing hotel rooms for conferences all over the US, to studying at various coffee shops day and night all over iii Seattle. The best coffee shop where we spent the most time is Café Allegro with its friendly staff, who are also good friends: Nathaniel Jackson, Colleen McCormack, Mike VanderWerff, Katie Robinson, Nick Shiflet, Danny Sherrard, Jaynie Healy, Colette-Yasi Naraghi and Jimmy LaRue. You guys are awesome! I would also like to thank Elizabeth Nolte for her extremely helpful comments, as well as Veysel Öztürk and Mehmet Kentel for their insightful contributions to my chapters. I would like to send special thanks to Cafer Sarıkaya for introducing me to the Aras family and helping me conduct interviews with Takuhi Tovmasyan as well as introducing me to Mıgırdiç Margosyan. I would like to thank Gabriel Skoog and Peter Klempner for their wonderful company enriched with music and conversation over the years. Whenever I needed a break they were there for me. My special thanks to Ayşe Toksöz, Matt Erickson, Marwa Maziad, Evrim Görmüş, Nate Snyder, Kelly Wildi, Colt and Kayla Cramer, and Landon Hogue for their friendship. You guys all made me feel like I am home. I would also like to thank my collegues Mona Pitre-Collins and Robin Chang at the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards, for their years of support, and my two special friends Oncu and Emre Tuzuner who have been through thick and thin with me. I feel so lucky to have met them both and be friends for so many years. We have been through a lot and now we are even stronger. One day we will sing again “Those were the days my friend…” Surely I cannot thank my family enough for their support throughout my graduate education, which took place in a part of the world that is so far away from them. My sister Filiz Salmaner Kuş has shown her never-ending support of my work for years. She believed in me regardless even though being away from each other has been hardest on iv her. I would like to give thanks to my uncle Rıza Sezginmert who has been an intellectual accompaniment to me over the years. Thank you for not only being part of my family, but also my friend and mentor. I would like to thank my aunt Gülen Taylan for opening her doors to me every time I needed a place to stay in İstanbul. Also I am thankful to my mother-in-law Joyce and father-in-law Rodney Haverfield for accepting me like their own daughter and always supporting my ambitions. I would also like to thank to my father Ülgen Salmaner (1936-2012) for his support over the years. He would be extremely proud of me if he could see the end result of my years of studying. Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge and thank my husband, my best friend and partner in crime, Aaron