Essays covering a broad range of genres and ranging from the late Ottoman era to contemporary literature open the debate on the place of Turkish literature in the globalized literary world. Explorations of the multilingual cosmopolitanism of the Ottoman literary scene are complemented by examples of cross-generational intertextual encounters. The renowned poet Nâzim Hikmet is studied from a variety of angles, while contemporary and popular writers such as Orhan Pamuk and Elif Safak are contextualized. Turkish Literature as World Literature not only fills a significant lacuna in world literary studies but also draws a composite historical, political, and cultural portrait of Turkey in its relations with the broader world.These 12 essays present a kaleidoscopic view of original reflections on Turkish literary writing from the 1850s until today by authors from Namik Kemal to Orhan Pamuk. In their detailed overview, the editors scrutinize previous approaches to Turkish literature through lenses provided by world literature studies, which they critically approach by unsettling the foundational concepts of center and periphery. Among the topics discussed in this brilliant contribution to world literature studies are 19th-century considerations of world literature by Ottoman authors, transnational literary exchanges, political internationalization, and translation. Challenging and reformulating conventional ways of thinking about modern Turkish literature, the essays in the volume delineate new ways to consider how Turkish literature becomes world literature.
