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DEFENSE OF MULTIPLE ROOTS LANDS BEST-SELLING AUTHOR IN COURT
by Nicolas Cheviron
Agence France Presse -- English
September 19, 2006 Tuesday 1:45 AM GMT
Multicultural and multilingual and determined to defend her right
to be so, prominent author Elif Shafak's ruffling of establishment
feathers in Turkey has resulted in a lawsuit for "denigrating the
Turkish national identity" that begins here Thursday.
The novels of the 35-year-old Shafak, peopled with uprooted characters
who switch nationality, religion and even sex, has managed to offend
almost all sectors of Turkey's complex establishment.
Militant secular defenders of the principles set by Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, the founder of the republic, conservative Islamists and far
right nationalists all disapprove.
She angered the Kemalists by reproaching the republic, founded by
Ataturk from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, of rejecting
the Ottomans' multicultural past and replacing it with what she sees
as an impoverished, if monolithic, national identity.
They also frowned at her column in the Islamist -- albeit moderate
-- daily Zaman and her marriage to a former commentator of the same
newspaper, which has alleged links to a powerful religious brotherhood.
Conservative Muslims were indignant when her first novel, "Pinhan"
(The Sufi), published in 1998, told the story of a hermaphrodite
Muslim mystic.
For the far right, the last straw was a passage in her latest opus,
"Baba ve Pic" (The Bastard of Istanbul), calling for a national
reflection on the near-taboo subject of the Armenian massacres of
World War I, whose "genocide" label Turkey vehemently rejects.
An association of far-right lawyers that has distinguished itself
over the past few years by instigating lawsuits against liberal
intellectuals is behind the trial scheduled to begin before an Istanbul
court on Thursday.
"The Bastard of Istanbul" is sweeping saga of four generations of
women moving between Turkey and the United States and recounting the
tale of an Armenian family that fled the massacres of 1915, leaving
behind a child who was reared as a Turk and a Muslim.
Shafak knows what she is talking about: the product of the Kemalist
establishment she criticizes, the granddaughter of a military family
and the daughter of diplomats, she has led a nomadic existence.
Born in Strasbourg, France, in 1971, she spent her youth in Spain
and Jordan and shares her time between Turkey and the United States,
where she teaches at the University of Arizona.
"I do have roots, but my roots are not in one place, neither in the
ground nor in the air," she explained in a 2005 interview in New
Perspectives Quarterly.
"Im connected to different cultures, and thats, I think, part of the
reason why I believe its possible to be multicultural, multilingual
and multifaith," she said.
After the controversial "The Sufi" came "The Mirrors of the City",
which told the tale of conversos -- Jews converted to Catholicism to
flee the Spanish inquisition -- who sought refuge in Istanbul.
"The Gaze" was the story of women's quest for independence throughout
the centuries and "The Flea Palace" recounted the moral and physical
collapse of the residents of an Istanbul apartment building.
And "The Saint of Incipient Insanities", written in English in 2004,
is the story of a score of foreigners' fruitless quest for fulfillment
in the United States.
Whether Shafak will appear at her trial on Thursday is still unclear,
however.
She became a mother for the first time on Saturday and her baby
daughter's name reflects Shafak's preoccupations as a writer --
Shehrazad Zelda, after, respectively, the legendary teller of the
1001 tales of the Arabian Nights, and the talented and tragic spouse
of US author F. Scott Fitzgerald.
by Nicolas Cheviron
Agence France Presse -- English
September 19, 2006 Tuesday 1:45 AM GMT
Multicultural and multilingual and determined to defend her right
to be so, prominent author Elif Shafak's ruffling of establishment
feathers in Turkey has resulted in a lawsuit for "denigrating the
Turkish national identity" that begins here Thursday.
The novels of the 35-year-old Shafak, peopled with uprooted characters
who switch nationality, religion and even sex, has managed to offend
almost all sectors of Turkey's complex establishment.
Militant secular defenders of the principles set by Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, the founder of the republic, conservative Islamists and far
right nationalists all disapprove.
She angered the Kemalists by reproaching the republic, founded by
Ataturk from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, of rejecting
the Ottomans' multicultural past and replacing it with what she sees
as an impoverished, if monolithic, national identity.
They also frowned at her column in the Islamist -- albeit moderate
-- daily Zaman and her marriage to a former commentator of the same
newspaper, which has alleged links to a powerful religious brotherhood.
Conservative Muslims were indignant when her first novel, "Pinhan"
(The Sufi), published in 1998, told the story of a hermaphrodite
Muslim mystic.
For the far right, the last straw was a passage in her latest opus,
"Baba ve Pic" (The Bastard of Istanbul), calling for a national
reflection on the near-taboo subject of the Armenian massacres of
World War I, whose "genocide" label Turkey vehemently rejects.
An association of far-right lawyers that has distinguished itself
over the past few years by instigating lawsuits against liberal
intellectuals is behind the trial scheduled to begin before an Istanbul
court on Thursday.
"The Bastard of Istanbul" is sweeping saga of four generations of
women moving between Turkey and the United States and recounting the
tale of an Armenian family that fled the massacres of 1915, leaving
behind a child who was reared as a Turk and a Muslim.
Shafak knows what she is talking about: the product of the Kemalist
establishment she criticizes, the granddaughter of a military family
and the daughter of diplomats, she has led a nomadic existence.
Born in Strasbourg, France, in 1971, she spent her youth in Spain
and Jordan and shares her time between Turkey and the United States,
where she teaches at the University of Arizona.
"I do have roots, but my roots are not in one place, neither in the
ground nor in the air," she explained in a 2005 interview in New
Perspectives Quarterly.
"Im connected to different cultures, and thats, I think, part of the
reason why I believe its possible to be multicultural, multilingual
and multifaith," she said.
After the controversial "The Sufi" came "The Mirrors of the City",
which told the tale of conversos -- Jews converted to Catholicism to
flee the Spanish inquisition -- who sought refuge in Istanbul.
"The Gaze" was the story of women's quest for independence throughout
the centuries and "The Flea Palace" recounted the moral and physical
collapse of the residents of an Istanbul apartment building.
And "The Saint of Incipient Insanities", written in English in 2004,
is the story of a score of foreigners' fruitless quest for fulfillment
in the United States.
Whether Shafak will appear at her trial on Thursday is still unclear,
however.
She became a mother for the first time on Saturday and her baby
daughter's name reflects Shafak's preoccupations as a writer --
Shehrazad Zelda, after, respectively, the legendary teller of the
1001 tales of the Arabian Nights, and the talented and tragic spouse
of US author F. Scott Fitzgerald.