Depicting the Late Ottoman Empire in Turkish Autobiographies - Images of a Past World

Informationen zum Autor Philipp Wirtz studied the history, languages and cultures of the Middle East in Frankfurt am Main, Bamberg and London. He holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and teaches Middle East history at SOAS and the University of Warwick. Zusammenfassung The period between the 1880s and the 1920s was a time of momentous changes in the Ottoman Empire. It was also an age of literary experiments, of which autobiography forms a part. This book analyses Turkish autobiographical narratives describing the part of their authors’ lives that was spent while the Ottoman Empire still existed. The texts studied in this book were written in the cultural context of the Turkish Republic, which went to great lengths to disassociate itself from the empire and its legacy. This process has only been criticised and partially reversed in very recent times, the resurging interest in autobiographical texts dealing with the "old days" by the Turkish reading public being part of a wider, renewed regard for Ottoman legacies. Among the analysed texts are autobiographies by writers, journalists, soldiers and politicians, including classics like Halide Edip Adivar and Sevket Süreyya Aydemir, but also texts by authors virtually unknown to Western readers, such as Ahmed Emin Yalman. While the official Turkish republican discourse went towards a dismissal of the imperial past, autobiographical narratives offer a more balanced picture. From the earliest memories and personal origins of the authors, to the conflict and violence that overshadowed private lives in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, this book aims at showing examples of how the authors painted what one of them called "images of a past world." Inhaltsverzeichnis Note on transliteration, dates and names Acknowledgements Introduction I Why write Autobiography? II Origins, Backgrounds and Beginnings III Presenting Ottoman Childhoods IV Education: Reminiscences of School V End of Empire: Revolution, Unrest and War VI Post-Ottoman Autobiography for Western Audiences Conclusion: Remembering lost Ottoman Worlds Appendix: Glossary of Key Authors Bibliography Index ...

Product details

• Authors: Philipp Wirtz, Wirtz Philipp
• Assisted by: Christoph Herzog (Editor of the series), Richard Wittmann (Editor of the series)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 16.03.2017
• EAN: 9781472479327
• ISBN: 978-1-4724-7932-7
• No. of pages: 186
• Series: Self-Narratives of the Ottoman; Life Narratives of the Ottoman Realm: Individual and Empire in the Near East; Life Narratives of the Ottoman Realm: Individual and Empire in the Near East
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Collected biographies, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General, Ottoman Empire, 20th Century, HISTORY / Middle East / Turkey & Ottoman Empire, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Middle Eastern history, turkish