OttMed · Reassessing Late Ottoman Literatures within a Mediterranean Framework

Reassessing Late Ottoman Literatures within a Mediterranean Framework

OttMed has analyzed nineteenth-century Ottoman Turkish and Arabic literary texts as part of Mediterranean literatures, as these texts received little attention in Mediterranean studies. I focused on the nineteenth century because many historians have claimed that this period witnessed crucial transformations that gave arise to current political and cultural dynamics within the Mediterranean, including the dissolution of the Mediterranean cosmopolitanism due to the emergence of nation-states. Thus, my project gave a close reading of literary works from diverse linguistic traditions such as French,Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and Karamanlı (Turkish written in Greek letters). Each close reading generated a particular vision of the Mediterranean and its history by describing the region from one vantage point such as Algeria, Istanbul, or Malta. For further enriching the literary analysis, this project has used archival research and digital humanities techniques to map out travel itineraries of authors who composed these texts. By building upon various fields and disciplines such as postcolonial studies, world literature, and art history, I have examined issues that still shape the modern Mediterranean, such as exile, modernization, and migration. Overall, my project has brought together different vantage points that were not studied together for generating a more multilayered vision of the Mediterranean Sea and its basin. OttMed has contributed to H2020 Societal Challenge “Europe in a Changing World” through three means: (i) It has demonstrated that the political and social transformations throughout the Mediterranean in the nineteenth century have played a crucial role in shaping what Europe, Middle East, and Mediterranean designate today. (ii) It has revealed that the key issues that have shaped the modern Mediterranean such as exile and the rise of Islamism, partly stem from key transformations of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries such as the impact of global capitalism on the modern Mediterranean and the demise of the Ottoman Empire. (iii) It has emphasized that literary analysis can steer attention to factors that social quantitative analysis often overlooks, as literary criticism points out the emotional impact of key political transformations and reveals the concepts and ideas that have shaped the cultural and political elite.

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