Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places, and Time (Volume 14) (Public Worlds)

What would an Islamic modernism look like? The question is a pressing one, as cultures rebel against modernity in its almost exclusively European forms. Alev Cinar's groundbreaking examination of contemporary Turkey, which stands at the threshold of East and West, of religious and secular nationalism, explores modernity through daily practices and the social construction of identity and political agency in relation to nationalism, secularism, and Islam. Focusing on developments of the 1990s, Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey argues that Islamist ideology generated an alternative modernization project, which applied the same strategies and techniques as that of the modernizing state to produce and institutionalize its own version of an equally thorough nationalist program. Using local details and debates - including a fascinating discussion of veiling as symbolic of both the "liberation" of Western appearance and the Islamists' struggle to rescue their nation's culture - Cinar reveals modernity as a transformative intervention in bodies, places, and times. Bringing a much-needed critical theory approach to bear on the politics of an Islamic nation, Cinar's work introduces a new way of conceptualizing modernity based on the analysis of a non-Western context. "What would an Islamic modernism look like? The question is a pressing one, as cultures rebel against modernity in its almost exclusively European forms. Alev Cinar's groundbreaking examination of contemporary Turkey, which stands at the threshold of East and West, of religious and secular nationalism, explores modernity through daily practices and the social construction of identity and political agency in relation to nationalism, secularism, and Islam. Focusing on developments of the 1990s, Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey argues that Islamist ideology generated an alternative modernization project, which applied the same strategies and techniques as that of the modernizing state to produce and institutionalize its own version of an equally thorough nationalist program. Using local details and debates - including a fascinating discussion of veiling as symbolic of both the "liberation" of Western appearance and the Islamists' struggle to rescue their nation's culture - Cinar reveals modernity as a transformative intervention in bodies, places, and times."--Book cover Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 1 Performative Politics and the Public Gaze......Page 42 2 Clothing the National Body: Islamic Veiling and Secular Unveiling......Page 62 3 Cities, Squares, and Statues: The Use of Public Space in the Making of the Nation......Page 108 4 Performing the Nation: Public Contestations of National History......Page 147 Conclusion......Page 177 Notes......Page 188 Bibliography......Page 202 C......Page 206 O......Page 207 Y......Page 208 Alev Çinar's examination of contemporary Turkey, which stands at the threshold of East and West, of religious and secular nationalism, explores modernity through daily practices and the social construction of identity and political agency in relation to nationalism, secularism, and Islam. Using local details and debates-including an intriguing discussion of veiling-Çinar reveals modernity as a transformative intervention in bodies, places, and times Introduction Performative politics and the public gaze Bodies: clothing the national body: Islamic veiling and secular unveiling Places: cities, squares and statues: the use of public space in the making of the nation Times: performing the nation: public contestations of national history Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index.