Author(s): Ãlkü AyÅe OÄUZHAN BÃREKCÄ°, Gülcan IÅIK
It is known that the West, which has been interested in Eastern civilization since ancient times, increased its interest in the 17th and 18th centuries with the effects of the social, political, economic and scientific development. This interest of the West is called “Orientalism” by certain circles. According to this, the East and the West have been analyzed in the framework of many differences and contrasts, and images have been produced through a wide range of products such as novels, travelogues, cinema, advertisements, and teasers. ?stanbul, the city which has been the center of many empires throughout history and has incorporated many cultures, has been politically, culturally and financially very important for the East and West in almost every period of history. This importance of ?stanbul has been reflected in many written and visual works and in these works, ?stanbul is discussed based on qualities attributed both to the East and the West. It is seen that in many works produced by western artists, Ottoman Empire in general, ?stanbul in specific, is narrated with an orientalist point of view. However, there are also works that criticize the way that orientalism narrates the East. Thus, “?stanbul of Ottoman Empire” by the Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo, who criticizes the Eurocentric orientalist point of view and cultural conflict between the East and the West, is worth to study. In this framework, in this study, counter-arguments to the East image of Ottoman Empire constructed by many westerners and the orientalist point of view developed in this direction were found under “Turkish image”, “Governing structure of Ottoman Empire”, “?stanbul and its daily life” categories in the mentioned work. Through the mentioned categories analyzed via text analysis, Goytisolo’s perspective of ?stanbul and Ottoman was put forth.
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