The novel The Bastard of Istanbul was originally written in English by Elif Shafak, a Turkish author with several novels already to her credit. A feminist novel that shuttles between America and Turkey it addresses several controversial topics including the Islam and women, the hybridization of contemporary Turkish culture, and the Armenian genocide.The use of English and Turkish is controversial in Shafak's writing,
Shafak's use of English also reads, in Turkey, as a refusal of the "Turkification" of the Turkish language—the purging of borrowed words and expressions from Arabic, Persian and other languages. Turkification has been going on since the time of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (who came to power in 1923); the nationalist position is that the borrowed language came in as an imperialist result of the polyglot Ottoman empire. Shafak's use of Ottoman Turkish in her other novels has already brought her criticism, to which she responds: "I find linguistic cleansing as dangerous as ethnic cleansing." She also finds old words beautiful. The Turkish translation of The Bastard of Istanbul will make generous use of them. Publisher's WeeklyThe novel offers a jumping off point for Americans to learn about the Armenian genocide, which took place in what is now Turkey under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
A number of things about the ending of the novel left me confused. Why can the relationship between Armanoush's grandmother and Asya's family not be revealed? Is the only "solution" to the birth of Asya the death of her father?
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Article 42 of the Constitution of Turkey states, "No language other than Turkish shall be taught as a mother tongue to Turkish citizens at any institutions of training or education. Foreign languages to be taught in institutions of training and education and the rules to be followed by schools conducting training and education in a foreign language shall be determined by law. The provisions of international treaties are reserved." It is as if the Turkish government still thinks it can unify its people by forcing them into specifically outlined cultural boundaries.
The idea of her language usage and "Turkification" adds a whole new component to this novel that I had not considered as I was reading the book. It is amazing how the use of language in writing can create a whole new discussion aside from the apparent content of the work! What an interesting look into the Turkish culture!
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