Abstract

The New Cultural Climate in Turkey is a beautifully written collection of essays by a leading Turkish intellectual. It presents a compelling analysis of cultural politics in Turkey, arguing that the dominant clichéd dualities of East/West and secular/sacred mask a reality of silence, repression and return. Gürbilek's keen analysis of radical changes following the 1980 coup demonstrates how two apparently contrary cultural strategies - one repressive and censoring, forcing abnegation, the other liberal and provocative, inviting assimilation - were roused to join in silent solidarity. Offering a sophisticated review of the culture, politics and literature in Turkey, this is the sole book in English that analyses the cultural aspects of modern Turkey in order to explore its place within global politics - a groundbreaking work.
Nurdan GürbIlek, one of the foremost cultural critics in Turkey and an analysis of the cultural dynamics of the 1980s in Turkey. She is the author of Living in a Shop Window (1992). Her other publications include Shifting Shadow (1995) and Homework (1999), a collection of essays on modern Turkish writers. She is also the author of Bad Boy Turk (2001), an analysis of some of the significant images and tropes in modern Turkish literature and popular culture, and of Orient Lost (2004), which explores the sexual anxieties accompanying the Ottoman-Turkish literary modernization. Her last book, The Language of the Wronged (2008), is a collection of essays on Dostoevsky's 'underground tragedy' and its counterparts in modern Turkish literature.
'This is a Turkey alive and unadorned -- beyond the clichés of East and West, the veil and cappuccino, Islam and Pamuk ... Victoria Holbrook’s translation sparkles like the morning rays falling on the Bosphorus.' Gregory Jusdanis, The Ohio State University 'Her skill in combining minute, analytic textual explication with erudite theoretical framing is sure to captivate a wide audience of scholar and student alike who are interested in Turkish literature.' Jale Parla, Istanbul Bilgi University