Synopses & Reviews
In this study of Kuzguncuk, known as one of Istanbulandrsquo;s historically most tolerant, multiethnic neighborhoods, Amy Mills is animated by a single question: what does it mean to live in a place that once wasandmdash;but no longer isandmdash;ethnically and religiously diverse?
andldquo;Turkificationandrdquo; drove out most of Kuzguncukandrsquo;s minority Greeks, Armenians, and Jews in the mid-twentieth century, but they left behind potent vestiges of their presence in the cityscape. Mills analyzes these places in a street-by-street ethnographic tour. She looks at how memory is conveyed and contested in Kuzguncukandrsquo;s built environment, whether through the popular television programs filmed on location there or in the cross-class alliance that sprung up to advocate the preservation of an old market garden. Overall, she finds that the neighborhoodandrsquo;s landscape not only connotes feelings of andldquo;belonging and familiarityandrdquo; connected to a andldquo;narrative of historic multiethnic harmonyandrdquo;and#160;but also makes these ideasand#160;appear to be uncontestably real, or true. The resulting nostalgia bolsters a version of Turkish nationalism that seems cosmopolitan and benign. This study of memories of interethnic relationships in a local placeand#160;examines why the cultural memory of tolerance has become so popular and raises questions regarding the nature and meaning of cosmopolitanism in the contemporary Middle East.
A major contribution to urban studies, human geography, and Middle East studies, Streets of Memory is imbued with a sense of genuine connection to Istanbul and the people who live there.
Review
andldquo;Streets of Memory is a powerful ethnography of spatial relations and social memory in contemporary Istanbul. Beautifully written andand#160;original, this book is a most welcome contribution to socialand#160;geography in Turkey and the Middle East.andrdquo;andmdash;Esra andOuml;zyanduuml;rek, author of Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey
Review
andldquo;Amy Mills deeply and carefully explicates the place of landscape and the importance of place in mediating multiple identities, ranging from the personal to the national. She is particularly good at using ethnographic fieldwork to demonstrate the on-the-ground manner in which landscape works.andrdquo;andmdash;Richard H. Schein, editor of Landscape and Race in the United States
About the Author
Amy Mills is an assistant professor in the department of geography at the University of South Carolina.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Maps xiii
Introduction:and#160;Identity and Urban Memory in Landscape 1
1. The Turkish Nation in the Urban Landscape:and#160;Cultural Geographies of a Nationalizing City 35
2. Uryanizade Street:and#160;Landscape of Collective Memory 59
3. Garden Street:and#160;Narratives of Contested Place 85
4. Icadiye Street:and#160;Nostalgia for Home, before History 106
5. New Day Street:and#160;Neighboring and Belonging 135
6. Jacob Street:and#160;Jewish Identity in Place 163
Conclusion:and#160;Nostalgia for Cosmopolitanism in Istanbul 207
Notes 219
Bibliography 249
Index 271