ABSTRACT
The topic of transnationalism has become highly popular in academic circles in Turkey. Gökçen Karanfil and Serkan şavk’s edited collection Cinema, Transnationalism and Turkey (2013), for instance, concentrates on issues of migration and new constructions of Turkishness that challenge nationalism’s abuse of loyalty and intimacy, 1 while a recent issue of the Journal of American Studies of Turkey was devoted to transnational feminism from an American studies perspective that signals “a movement towards examining how ‘western’ countries, such as the United States are, for better or worse, implicated in global issues that impact women’s lives and how these issues can be broached.” 2 The critical turn towards transnational studies was further enhanced as a result of two panels staged in May 2014 in a seminar organized by the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Koç University, I.stanbul. 3 Both drew on a particular construction of “transnationalism” (understood as a process of crossing borders whether geographical, political, psychological, or otherwise) that remains problematic in a country whose borders are perpetually subject to (re-)negotiation. Since the creation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, successive governments have pursued westernization policies in the civil and political spheres; in recent years, on the other the hand, the West has been blamed for initiating a series of plots against the current administration, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in particular. Turkey has turned its back on the European Union and pursued closer diplomatic relations with neighboring countries in the Middle Eastern region. By foregrounding “Islamic” values in place of “westernization,” Erdoğan secured a substantial majority for his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the recent local elections. The government has also waged war against its former allies, the Hizmet movement, by promoting the cause of nationalism in opposition to Hizmet’s stated policy of integration with the world “and meet[ing] on a principle of universal human values while valuing […] [the Turkish people’s] roots.” 4
