Recapitulating Love Modernity, Secularity, and Sufism in Turkey

This dissertation argues that the notion of love in Turkey refers not merely to an emotion but rather to reason, rationality, and a scientific mindset. It is situated among a plethora of interconnected fields, from culture to politics, and is woven into questions of national identity. The dissertation focuses on an eclectic range of examples, including modernist literature, a cartoon, and popular contemporary television series, all of which address love from various discursive perspectives. This emphasis on love, ashk in Turkish, is derived from its ambivalent meaning in that it both refers to romantic and Sufi love. Using Michel Foucault’s genealogical method, I draw a genealogy of love in Turkey by situating ashk at the intersection of modernization, secularism, gender, and Islam. Although ashk signifies an epistemological break with the Ottoman Islamic past, primarily in republican discourse, I argue that the Sufi concept of love persists in secularized Turkey in diverse forms. Throughout my analysis, love, with its ambivalence, both complies with and resists secularization, highlighting the crucial role of emotions, culture, and traditions in the making of an alternative modernity.