The Ottoman Canon and the Construction of Arabic andTurkish Literatures

Join us for a book talk with Professor C. Cehyun Arslan on “The Ottoman Canon and the Construction of Arabic and Turkish Literatures” accompanied Professor Yaseen Noorani .

Abstract: The Ottoman Canon and the Construction of Arabic and Turkish Literatures fleshes out the Ottoman canon's multilingual character to call for a literary history that can reassess and even move beyond categories that many critics take for granted, such as 'classical Arabic literature' and 'Ottoman literature'. It gives a historically contextualised close reading of works from authors who have been studied as pioneers of Arabic and Turkish literatures, such as Ziya Pasha, Juri Zaydän, Marüf al-Rusäft and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar.

The Ottoman Canon analyses how these authors prepared the arguments and concepts that shape how we study Arabic and Turkish literatures today as they reassessed the relationship among the Ottoman canon's linguistic traditions. Furthermore, The Ottoman Canon examines the Ottoman reception of pre-Ottoman poets, such as Kab in Zuhayr, hence opening up new research avenues for Arabic literature, Ottoman studies and comparative literature.