"Though books were potentially harmful, novels were all the more dangerous. The path of fiction could easily mislead you into the cosmos of stories where everything was fluid, quixotic, and as open to surprises as a moonless night in the desert. Before you knew it you could be so carried away that you could lose touch with reality - that stringent and stolid truth from which no minority should ever veer too far from in order not to end up unguarded when the winds shifted and bad times arrived. [...]
Imagination was a dangerously captivating magic for those compelled to be realistic in life, and words could be poisonous for those destined always to be silenced."
From The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak *1971
Some odd months ago, I had been to my favourite bookshop in Amsterdam: The English Bookshop in the Jordaan. I hardly leave the shop without a bagful of books. So, without much information I bought the title The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak, having a notion about the title but no further knowledge about the book.
Finally, I've found time to read the book. And the more I read, the more I grew curious about the author daring to fictionalise a very complex subject: the relationship between Armenians and Turks. It's not a political novel though she had been prosecuted for it (the charges were dropped later). It has a very different approach with the focus on a female perspective, a perspective that is less focused on political statements but on historical facts and the impact these facts have on the successors.
Her focus on a female point of view could be related to Elif's upbringing: When Elif, née Elif Bilgin in Strasbourg, was one year old, her Turkish parents separated and she grew up with her single mother, Shafak. Her mother, whose name Elif took on as her pen name, later became a diplomat which also meant that Elif grew up in various places around the world: Madrid, Amman and Istanbul. As she explains in an interview with the CNN (see here), it has been her imagination which helped her to make her feel at home at the various places. So she began writing at a very young age and published her first stories at the age of 23. With her first book Pinhan (The Mystic), published in 1997, she was awarded with The Great Rumi-Prize, given to the best works in mystical literature in Turkey. Another eight novels followed written either in Turkish or in English, awarded with various prizes and nominations and translated in numerous languages. Concurrently, she holds a Master's degree in Gender and Women's Studies and a PhD in Political Sciences, writes for major international newspapers in Turkish and English, sits in various councils and judgement panels and is active on Twitter, while commuting between Istanbul and London. A very impressive biography which leaves one breathless reading her various social and political roles and activities.
Yet, she is also an inspiring woman on a different level: When she gave birth to her daughter in 2006, Elif suffered from postpartum depression. Instead of masking her illness she went public and wrote her memoir Black Milk about the time of readjusting her inner self (check my blog on 'inner selves' - June 2013). As she was looking for other female writers, this time not for inspiration in writing but for their lives, she realized that becoming a mother brings along questions about one's new and extended identity. How to combine her previous activities and roles with her new role as a mother and the subsequent expectations of family and society. As she says in an interview: "Writing Black Milk helped me to reconstruct myself. Odd as it may sound, depressions are golden opportunities to reassemble our inner pieces. [...] You can't be your usual self, you can't do the things you have always taken for granted. In that utter chaos there is an astonishing potential to achieve a new order." (find here the interview on WildRiverReview) So Elif reassembled her inner pieces and continued writing about various subjects while breaking down categories and clichés of identity, society and history. An inspiring and courageous woman and writer - check your local bookshop (!) and you'll certainly find one of her books which is worth reading.
Being inspired not only by her book but as much by her life, I will present her in March 2015 at one of the various events around International Women's Day held in Aalen (D).
Her focus on a female point of view could be related to Elif's upbringing: When Elif, née Elif Bilgin in Strasbourg, was one year old, her Turkish parents separated and she grew up with her single mother, Shafak. Her mother, whose name Elif took on as her pen name, later became a diplomat which also meant that Elif grew up in various places around the world: Madrid, Amman and Istanbul. As she explains in an interview with the CNN (see here), it has been her imagination which helped her to make her feel at home at the various places. So she began writing at a very young age and published her first stories at the age of 23. With her first book Pinhan (The Mystic), published in 1997, she was awarded with The Great Rumi-Prize, given to the best works in mystical literature in Turkey. Another eight novels followed written either in Turkish or in English, awarded with various prizes and nominations and translated in numerous languages. Concurrently, she holds a Master's degree in Gender and Women's Studies and a PhD in Political Sciences, writes for major international newspapers in Turkish and English, sits in various councils and judgement panels and is active on Twitter, while commuting between Istanbul and London. A very impressive biography which leaves one breathless reading her various social and political roles and activities.
Yet, she is also an inspiring woman on a different level: When she gave birth to her daughter in 2006, Elif suffered from postpartum depression. Instead of masking her illness she went public and wrote her memoir Black Milk about the time of readjusting her inner self (check my blog on 'inner selves' - June 2013). As she was looking for other female writers, this time not for inspiration in writing but for their lives, she realized that becoming a mother brings along questions about one's new and extended identity. How to combine her previous activities and roles with her new role as a mother and the subsequent expectations of family and society. As she says in an interview: "Writing Black Milk helped me to reconstruct myself. Odd as it may sound, depressions are golden opportunities to reassemble our inner pieces. [...] You can't be your usual self, you can't do the things you have always taken for granted. In that utter chaos there is an astonishing potential to achieve a new order." (find here the interview on WildRiverReview) So Elif reassembled her inner pieces and continued writing about various subjects while breaking down categories and clichés of identity, society and history. An inspiring and courageous woman and writer - check your local bookshop (!) and you'll certainly find one of her books which is worth reading.
Being inspired not only by her book but as much by her life, I will present her in March 2015 at one of the various events around International Women's Day held in Aalen (D).
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