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Fear and loathing in the Turkish national imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Jenny White
Jenny White*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Boston University, jbwhite@bu.edu
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Abstract

Blood, sexual honor, and “Muslim-ness” are related discourses that in Turkey produce national subjects in the service of the state. The national narrative brands a subject's perception of self, attributes of the body, and everyday practices with highly resonant markers of belonging. The maintenance of a national identity requires continual vigilance against the threat of forgetting, losing the coherence of the narrative, and disappearing. I will examine the role of purity and boundaries in reproducing Turkish national identity, with particular focus on two key metaphors of threat: the missionary and the headscarf.

Keywords

nationalismIslamTurkeyheadscarfidentitymissionarieswomen in Turkey
Type
Lectures
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 42 , Spring 2010 , pp. 215 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2010

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