Lexington Books
Pages: 204
•
Trim: 6½ x 9
978-1-7936-1487-2 • Hardback • January 2020 • $105.00 • (£81.00)
978-1-7936-1488-9 • eBook • January 2020 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Charles D. Sabatos is associate professor of comparative literature at Yeditepe University.
Introduction: Frontier Orientalism Between Myth and History
Chapter 1: Menacing Turks: Self-Fashioning in Captivity and Travel Narratives
Chapter 2: Mythical Turks: Epic and Folk Poetry in the National Revivals
Chapter 3: Metaphorical Turks: Truth and Fantasy in Historical Fiction
Chapter 4: Modernist Turks: The Orient in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia
Chapter 5: Metafictional Turks: Postcolonial, Postmodern and Postsocialist Identity
Frontier Orientalism and the Turkish Image in Central European Literature makes an exciting contribution to scholarly debates on the role of Ottoman ideas in the formation of European identity and nationhood. Both ambitious in scope and grounded in theory, this study traces self-fashioning and nation formation in Slovak and related literatures from the early modern period through to the present day. It is a reminder that Central and Eastern Europe were vitally connected to both Western Europe and the Mediterranean, and that these cross-cultural interactions sparked great creativity, as storytellers navigated the intersections between power and identity against shifting political boundaries. These stories are important not only for specialists in Central European literature, but also for anyone who studies the development of nations and national identities.
— Laura Lisy-Wagner, San Francisco State University
This study shows the multifarious literary repercussions of the Ottoman invasion of Central Europe as they kept evolving throughout the centuries. Charles D. Sabatos presents a rich tapestry of interesting literary material and eruditely discusses its implications for cross-cultural understanding. His well-researched and lucidly written book is an important contribution to the knowledge about the imagining of the Orient in the literatures of the region. It will undoubtedly become a reference for all interested in the critique of European Orientalism.
— Róbert Gáfrik, Slovak Academy of Sciences
Sabatos's study of the mythicization of the Turk in Central European literature on the border with the Ottoman Empire is not merely a historical study, but reveals processes and tropes that recur in Europe's negotiation of its relationship with its Near East. More than just exemplifying what can be learned and brought to life through the academic encounter between two less well-known cultures, Sabatos takes on one of the world's most fraught frontiers with the confidence and sensitivity of someone who has lived and worked to understand both sides.
— Rajendra Chitnis, University College Oxford