The Politics of Public Memory in Turkey (Modern Intellectual & Political History of the Middle East)
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: March 31, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 225
ISBN-13: 9780815631316
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history; POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; Sociology; Social Science; Archaeology / Anthropology; ASIA; Turkey; Anthropology - Cultural; Middle East - Turkey; Collective memory; History
Description: "Turkish society is frequently accused of having amnesia. It has been said that there is no social memory in Turkey before Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded modern Turkey after World War I. Indeed, in 1923, the newly founded Turkish Republic committed to a modernist future by erasing the memory of its Ottoman past. Now, almost eighty years after the establishment of the Republic, the grandchildren of the founders have a different relationship with history. New generations make every effort to remember, record, and reconcile earlier periods. The multiple, personalized representations of the past which they have recovered allow contemporary Turkish citizens to create alternative identities for themselves and their communities. Unlike its futuristic and homogenizing character at the turn of the twentieth century, Turkish nationalism today uses memories to generate varied narratives for the nation and its minority groups"--Jacket.