Western Eyes: Contemporary Turkish Literature in A Global Context

An examination of which Turkish writers are translated, their publishers and the critical reception their works receive allows us to investigate the cultural and political ideologies and hierarchies that shape their profiles in the UK.

Recently published novels by Perihan Magden, Orhan Pamuk, Moris Farhi and Elif Shafak, the complex and contradictory significations around Turkish identity their work invites and their critical reception in the UK raise questions around both the burden of political signification forced upon Turkish writers who are forced into the role of, what Deleuze and Guattari define as, a ‘minor literature’; and the key role of the cultural intermediary in promoting Turkish culture abroad. Domestically Turkish literature, and Turkish culture in general, is undergoing a period of intense and exciting creativity as the nation attempts to articulate its crucial political and cultural role in the international arena as a conduit between global capitalism, European liberal humanitarian values and Islamic principles. This paper will explore the extent to which Turkish literature can thrive in an international arena and how much this depends on how successfully writers and their cultural intermediaries can negotiate global markets and domestic political persecution.