Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T17:20:05.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fear and loathing in the Turkish national imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Jenny White
Jenny White*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Boston University, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Blood, sexual honor, and “Muslim-ness” are related discourses that in Turkey produce national subjects in the service of the state. The national narrative brands a subject's perception of self, attributes of the body, and everyday practices with highly resonant markers of belonging. The maintenance of a national identity requires continual vigilance against the threat of forgetting, losing the coherence of the narrative, and disappearing. I will examine the role of purity and boundaries in reproducing Turkish national identity, with particular focus on two key metaphors of threat: the missionary and the headscarf.

Keywords

nationalismIslamTurkeyheadscarfidentitymissionarieswomen in Turkey
Type
Lectures
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 42 , Spring 2010 , pp. 215 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altınay, Ayşe Cül. The Myth of the Military Nation; Militarism, Gender, and Education in Turkey. New York: Palgrave, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atak, Hasan, and Çok, Figen. “The Turkish Version of Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (The Idea).” International Journal of Human and Social Sciences 2, no. 3 (2008): 148–54.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K.Nation and Narration. London: Routledge, 1990.Google Scholar
Ceylan, Deniz Tarba, and Irzık, Güral. Human Rights Issues in Textbooks: The Turkish Case. İstanbul: The History Foundation of Turkey, 2004.Google Scholar
Cumhuriyet, Commercial, 1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBSs9YYzH88.Google Scholar
Cumhuriyet, Commercial, 2, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwTzascPpCQ&NR=1.Google Scholar
Cumhuriyet, Commercial, 3, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbygWnBTqo.Google Scholar
Cagaptay, Soner, Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Moderı Turkey: Who Is a Turk? London: Routledge, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çınar, Alev. “National History as a Contested Site: The Conquest of Istanbul and Islamist Negotiations of the Nation.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43, no. 2 (2001): 364–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delàney, Carol. “Untangling the Meanings of Hair in Turkish Society.” Anthropological Quarterly 67, no. 4 (1994): 159–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Stability Initiative (ESI). “Sex and Power in Turkey: Feminism, Islam and the Maturing of Turkish Democracy.” (2007), http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/esLdocument_id_90.pdf.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House, 1975.Google Scholar
Foundation, Konrad Adenauer. Turkish Youth 98: The Silent Majority Highlighted. İstanbul: Istanbul Mülkiyeliler Foundation Social Research Center (İMV-SAM), 1999.Google Scholar
German Marshall Fund. “Transatlantic Trends 2009 Partners.” 2009.Google Scholar
Gündüç, Gökçe. “Büyükanit Spreads Militarism among Children.” (2008), http://bianet.org/english/education/104134-buyukanit-spreads-militarism-among-children.Google Scholar
Hall, Stuart. “Introduction: Who Needs Identity?” In Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by Hall, Stuart and du Cayr, Paul1–17. London: Sage, 1996.Google Scholar
Hart, Kimberly. “The Orthodoxization of Ritual Practice in Western Anatolia.” American Ethnologist 36, no. 4 (2009): 735–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hürriyet, 2 September 2009.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Careth H. “Between Fact and Fantasy: Turkey's Ergenekon Investigation.” Washington, DC: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, 2009.Google Scholar
Kandiyoti, Deniz. “Women, Islam, and the State: A Comparative Approach.” In Comparing Muslim Societies: Knowledge and the State in a World Civilization, edited by Cole, Juan, 237–60. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Kentel, Ferhat, Ahıska, Meltem, and Genç, Fırat. “Milletin Bölünmez Bütünlüğü” Demokratikleşme Sürecinde Parçalayan MHIiyetçilik(ler). İstanbul: TESEV, 2007.Google Scholar
Lewis, Geoffrey. The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Lindholm, Charles. Culture and Authenticity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.Google Scholar
Milliyet, 8 October 2008.Google Scholar
Nagel, Joane. “Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 21, no. 2 (2010): 242–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. “The Erotic Vatan [Homeland] as Beloved and Mother: To Love, to Possess, and to Protect.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 39, no. 3 (1997): 442–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Navaro-Yashin, Yael. “The Market for Identities: Secularism, Islamism, Commodities.” In Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey, edited by Kandiyoti, Deniz and Saktanber, Ayşe, 221–53. London: I. B. Tauris, 2002.Google Scholar
Neyzi, Leyla. “Object or Subject? The Paradox of ‘Youth’ in Turkey.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 33, no. 3 (2001): 411–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Özalpdemir, Ramazan. “Misyonerlik.” Diyanet Aylık Dergi, June 2005, 60.Google Scholar
Özcan, Emine. “‘Irkım Türk, Dinim islam'dan Ötesi Devinim.tv'de,” (2009), http://bianet.org/bianet/diger/115038-irkim-turk-dinim-islamdan-otesi-devinim-tvde.Google Scholar
Özkırımlı, Umut, and Sofos, Spyros A.. Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Özyürek, Esra. “Miniaturizing Atatürk: Privatization of State Imagery and Ideology in Turkey.” American Ethnologist 31, no. 3 (2004): 374–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parla, Ayşe. “The Honor of the State: Virginity Examinations in Turkey.” Feminist Studies 27, no. 1 (2001): 65–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saigol, Rubina. “Militarization, Nation and Gender: Women's Bodies as Arenas of Violent Conflict.” In Deconstructing Sexuality in the Middle East: Challenges and Discourses, edited by İlkkaracan, P., 165–75. Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2008.Google Scholar
Vick, Charles. “In Turkey, a Deep Suspicion of Missionaries.” The Washington Post, April 9 2006, A21.Google Scholar
Yıldırım, Hasan. “Misyonerlik Dalgaları İslâm'ın Sağlam Duvarlarına Çarpıp Durmaktadır.” Diyanet Ayhk Dergi, October 1999.Google Scholar
Yılmaz, Hakan. “Türkiye'de Orta Sınıfı Tanımlamak.” Commissioned by Boğaziçi University and Open Society Institute, 2007.Google Scholar
White, Jenny. “The Islamist Movement in Turkey and Human Rights.” Human Rights Review 3, no. 1 (2001): 17–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaman. “TSK: Misyonerler, Alevileri ve Kürtleri Hedef Aldı.” 31 December 2004.Google Scholar