The transformative idea that Turkish literature is not simply limited by the horizon of the nation has opened new critical and theoretical approaches in the field. Turkish Literature as World Literature marks an important milestone in the innovative study of the literatures of Turkey as worldly, cosmopolitan, polyglot, and transnational cultural productions that link disparate regions and cultures. * Erdag Goeknar, Associate Professor of Turkish & Middle East Studies, Duke University, USA, and author of Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy: The Politics of the Turkish Novel (2013) *
Turkish Literature as World Literature is a valuable contribution with essays that seek to challenge, question, and modify Eurocentric world literature theories dominant in the field. With its case studies, the volume seeks to propel world literature theories to unexplored horizons. * Beyza Lorenz, Lecturer in Turkish Language and Literature, University of California Los Angeles, USA *
These 12 essays present a kaleidoscopic view of original reflections on Turkish literary writing from the 1850s until today by authors from Namik Kemal to Orhan Pamuk. In their detailed overview, the editors scrutinize previous approaches to Turkish literature through lenses provided by world literature studies, which they critically approach by unsettling the foundational concepts of center and periphery. Among the topics discussed in this brilliant contribution to world literature studies are 19th-century considerations of world literature by Ottoman authors, transnational literary exchanges, political internationalization, and translation. Challenging and reformulating conventional ways of thinking about modern Turkish literature, the essays in the volume delineate new ways to consider how Turkish literature becomes world literature. * Selim S. Kuru, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Turkish and Ottoman Studies, University of Washington, USA *
