[Bilimsel Haber] New book: Exploring Turkish Cultures

[Onur Inal]

- New Book -

EXPLORING TURKISH CULTURES: ESSAYS, INTERVIEWS AND REVIEWS
by LAURENCE RAW, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2011.
ISBN 9781443826396   £49.95/ $74.99 HBK 410pp.

This groundbreaking series of essays offers new insights into Turkish
cultures both past and present. Moving beyond the traditional binaries
of east/west, Islam/secularism, or Europe/Asia, the book contains a
variety of perspectives on contemporary Turkey, from actors,
directors, critics and other major cultural figurs. The book tries to
situate these opinions in context by looking on how such perspectives
are employed in different cultural spheres - education, theatre,
politics and the like.

Exploring Turkish Cultures contains the first major interviews
published in English with major figures in Turkish film and theatre,
including actors Türkan Şoray, Genco Erkal and Nesrin Kazankaya. Other
figures interviewed include film directors Derviş Zaim and documentary
filmmakers Ben Hopkins, Pelin Esmer and Özgür Doğan. An extended
interview with the author, translator and academic Talât Halman rounds
off the interview section. Complementing these interviews are a series
of essays on major Turkish films and theatrical productions, both past
and present.

Combining historical analysis, comment and evaluation from an author
who has spent two decades living in Turkey, Exploring Turkish Cultures
represents a major contribution to contemporary Turkish studies.

* LAURENCE RAW teaches in the Department of English at Başkent
University, Ankara, Turkey. His other books include studies of film
adaptations of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James, as well as a book
of theatre criticism, Impressions of the Turkish Stage (2009). He has
published articles on Turkish film in Literature/ Film Quarterly and
Screen. He also writes regular reviews of Turkish theatre productions
for Theatreworld Internet Magazine and Theatre Journal.

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