“Istanbul, Construction of Self, and Urban Landscape through Rituals”
B Deniz Calis-Kural, Istanbul Bilgi University
My research is focused on the construction of self and landscape in the early modern Istanbul. My focus is on a particular poetic genre called Sehrengiz which as I propose was a subtext for dissident rituals practiced by a covert mystic group. I would like to compare these covert rituals to publicly accepted and commonly practiced garden rituals, where as I propose that the contrast and the challenge between gardens and landscape, between different genres of poetry, and, diverse groups of urban population create a dynamic scene and set the stage for the early modernity in Ottoman Istanbul as early as 16th century.
Following our plenary talk, which proposes a relation between rituals and the first park of Mexico City, I will also suggest a relation between dissident rituals and recreational open spaces, where one of these open spaces, later in the 18th century will become a very important public commons - if not a European park.
