The Ottoman Myth in Turkish Literature

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.…”

Between Orient and Occident: The Construction of a Postimperial Turkish Identity in Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s Novel Huzur

“…Simultaneously, history and in particular Ottoman history became a main theme in literature. Since the 1980s, the Ottoman Empire and its multicultural population, imperial architecture, and rich musical and literary traditions have become part of what I have referred to as the Ottoman Myth in Turkish literature (seeChovanec 2017Chovanec , 2018Chovanec , 2021. A central element of this myth is a postimperial melancholy that expresses a longing for both cultural and social aspects of the empire.27 On a general level, this imperial nostalgia in literature challenges the Kemalist framings of history and sheds light on forgotten or suppressed parts of Turkish national history.…”