Exploring Turkish Cultures: Essays, Interviews and Reviews - Tapa dura

"At first sight the book is as eclectic as Turkey's arts scene. Interviews, reviews and essays are interspersed: inspect the crafting of this book too closely and all you can see are small squares of colour that seem to have no meaning. Step back to see the big picture and you can appreciate that each tile has been carefully placed into a mosaic that gives an integrated image.Worth particular attention are Raw's interviews with some key figures who have shaped the arts in Turkey. Some of these are groundbreaking, because they are the first time that interviews with big stars have appeared in English."- Marion James, Istanbul in Today's Zaman, March 2011

This groundbreaking series of essays offers new insights into Turkish cultures both past and present. Moving beyond the traditional binaries of east/west, Islam/secularism, and Europe/Asia, the book contains a variety of perspectives on contemporary Turkey, from actors, directors, critics and other major cultural figures. The book tries to situate these opinions in context by looking at how such perspectives are employed in different cultural spheres-education, theatre, politics and the like. Exploring Turkish Cultures contains the first major interviews published in English with prominent public figures, including actors Turkan Soray, Genco Erkal and Nesrin Kazankaya. Other figures interviewed include film directors Dervis Zaim and documentary filmmakers Ben Hopkins, Pelin Esmer and OEzgur Dogan. An extended interview with the author, translator and academic Talat Halman rounds off the interview section. Complementing these interviews are a series of essays on major Turkish films and theatrical productions, both past and present. Combining historical analysis, comment and evaluation from an author who has spent two decades living in Turkey, Exploring Turkish Cultures represents a major contribution to contemporary Turkish studies.