Istanbul: Metamorphoses in an Imperial City

Literary Nonfiction. INSTANBUL: METAMORPHOSES IN AN IMPERIAL CITY brings together essays and memoirs by noted scholars and writers. The book opens with an introductory essay on the history of Istanbul by M. Akif Kirecci, followed by a series of essays on the city and its development since the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Included are essays by Burcu Özgüven, "Creating Ideas on the Urban Modernization: Istanbul's Development in the Thirties"; Laurent Mignon, "Istanbul Disorientated: From the 'National Poet' to the 'Unnational' Novelist"; Z. Esra Mirze Santesso, "Literary and Photographic Aura in Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul: Memories and the City"; Murat Nemet-Nejat, "Istanbul Noir"; and Iffet Evin, "Mehmet the Boatman," translated by Robert P. Finn. A second group of essays concerns American perceptions of Istanbul. Edward Foster summarizes the deep admiration of the city and Turkish culture generally by visitors from the United States in the nineteenth-century. The book closes with reminiscences of the modern city by the critic Walter Andrews, the poet Sidney Wade, and the playwright Anthony P. Pennino.