Exploring Turkish Cultures: Essays, Interviews and Reviews

Dr Laurence Raw

Jan 2011 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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This groundbreaking series of essays offers new insights into Turkish cultures both past and present. Moving beyond the traditional binaries of east/west, Islam/secularism, and Europe/Asia, the book contains a variety of perspectives on contemporary Turkey, from actors, directors, critics and other major cultural figures. The book tries to situate these opinions in context by looking at how such perspectives are employed in different cultural spheres—education, theatre, politics and the like.

Exploring Turkish Cultures contains the first major interviews published in English with prominent public figures, including actors Türkân Şoray, Genco Erkal and Nesrin Kazankaya. Other figures interviewed include film directors Derviş Zaim and documentary filmmakers Ben Hopkins, Pelin Esmer and Özgür Doğan. An extended interview with the author, translator and academic Talât Halman rounds off the interview section. Complementing these interviews are a series of essays on major Turkish films and theatrical productions, both past and present.

Combining historical analysis, comment and evaluation from an author who has spent two decades living in Turkey, Exploring Turkish Cultures represents a major contribution to contemporary Turkish studies.

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Laurence Raw teaches in the Department of English at Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey. His other books include studies of film adaptations of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James, as well as a book of theatre criticism: Impressions of the Turkish Stage (2009). He has published articles on Turkish film in Literature/Film Quarterly and Screen. He also writes regular reviews of Turkish theatre productions for Theatre-world Internet Magazine and Theatre Journal.