In the Days of Glory and Urinal: Late Ottoman Pera and the 21st Century Memory
K. Mehmet Kentel
Friday, Apr. 27 at 3:30pm
Denny Hall, Room 211
University of Washington
Either as a cosmopolitan sanctuary or as a hotbed of depravity, the memory of fin-de-siècle Pera in Istanbul, Turkey, has been narrated as an exception to the larger story of Istanbul's modernization. Especially in the recent years, when the urban space of Beyoğlu has increasingly become a very contentious topic within the local and national politics, and it has been subjected to relentless physical interventions by the authorities, the experience of Late Ottoman Pera found itself juxtaposed with the present-day Beyoğlu in a nostalgic dichotomy. This talk questions the validity of this dichotomy by a closer look at the late nineteenth century sources and the various ways in which Pera is remembered today.