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Uncoupling Language and Religion

An Exploration into the Margins of Turkish Literature

Laurent Mignon author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Academic Studies Press

Published:30th May '21

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Uncoupling Language and Religion cover

This book is an invitation to rethink our understanding of Turkish literature as a tale of two "others." The first part of the book examines the contributions of non-Muslim authors, the "others" of modern Turkey, to the development of Turkish literature during the late Ottoman and early republican period, focusing on the works of largely forgotten authors. The second part discusses Turkey as the "other" of the West and the way authors writing in Turkish challenged orientalist representations. Thus this book prepares the ground for a history of literature which uncouples language and religion and recreates the spaces of dialogue and exchange that have existed in late Ottoman Turkey between members of various ethno-religious communities.

“...Uncoupling Language and Religion is a welcome contribution to critical English language scholarship on Turkish literature. For Armenian studies, such a project’s value is as great as it is obvious... Mignon’s latest entry is a necessary, and emphatic, leap in that direction.”

— Aram Ghoogasian, Princeton University, Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies


“Mignon’s well-researched book is a substantial achievement. It opens new avenues for the evaluation of literatures written in Turkish in and outside Turkey. Uncoupling Language and Religion serves as a model for comparative analyses of national literatures, where canonized names often overshadow the contributions of marginalized literary figures across the globe.”

—- Beyza Lorenz, University of California Los Angeles, Turkish Studies


“Mignon’s “prose” is at the same time lucid and learned, rich and engrossing, attentive to details, yet not losing sight of the bigger picture – a remarkable achievement for a scholarly work…Mignon persistently digs the ground of the literary field to find buried treasures, original themes and subversive voices below the official façade of Turkish literary history.”


— Petr Kučera (Mainz), Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes

ISBN: 9781644695791

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

252 pages