ABSTRACT
“Dogs of Modernity” approaches the canine trope from an unconventional perspective and raises questions pertaining to the Western philosophical tradition as well as the Turkish experience of modernity. Bringing together literature and history, this chapter explores the Turkish modernist Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s short story alongside the dog massacre that took place in Istanbul in 1910. Definitions of modernity and humanism are called into question by problematizing traditional forms of writing and reading, personal and national histories as confession or autobiography.
