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Accepted Paper:

Orientalism Within: Stereotypical Categorizations and Perceptions of Eastern Turkey by the Citizens of Istanbul  
Nikitas Palantzas (University of Bristol)

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the stereotypical perceptions of Eastern Turkey by citizens of Istanbul, in the context of discussions about the European Union, as a dimension of an emerging euro-sceptic stance.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the stereotypical categorizations by which Turkish citizens in Istanbul refer to their fellow-citizens in Eastern Turkey, primarily in the context of discussions about Turkish identity , Europe and the Western World. Using ethnographic examples from my recent fieldwork in Istanbul I will attempt to discuss this phenomenon, taking under serious consideration local views that reflect a euro-sceptic stance regarding Turkey's integration to the European Union. These views reveal sets of meanings indicative of pre-existing discourses about the West and the rest, some of which are widely accepted in Turkey and occasionally give rise to an idiosyncratic form of internal orientalism. In the case of Turkey this apparent phenomenon, calls for further analysis, as it moves beyond the stereotypical conceptualisation of an external Other in terms of a simple West/East binary opposition. As it will be shown, in Turkey, these viewpoints are embedded in dominant discourses regarding definitions of proper nationhood, which are maintained and utilized in contemporary politics. Bringing together recent anthropological theory and analytical tools from political philosophy and psychoanalysis, I will examine this kind of internal 'otherness' in the context of local debates concerning Turkey's position towards the European Union.

Panel P44
Postgraduate forum
  Session 1