Abstract
The importance of the physical appearance of the reading material leads to the question of commodification and the market, the subject to which we now turn. Drawing on recent research into the relationship between commodification and modernity, this chapter addresses the hidden but crucial socioeconomic aspects of reading and literacy. The starting point for this investigation is recognizing a basic but fundamental shift effected by the new-style educational dispensation that was responsible for the expansion of literacy in the late Ottoman and early Republican periods, namely, the abandonment of what had been an essentially consumption-free educational apparatus, based on oral transmission and writing on erasable surfaces, in favor of one that required the wide-scale production and consumption of an expanding variety of books and other printed materials. The seemingly insatiable demand for teachers and textbooks meant that many could now make (or substantially augment) a living by writing. It also changed the way nascent readers related to what they read; what had been a largely communal act involving a shared medium of writing and a largely oral/aural environment was replaced by an individual, frequently silent and increasingly commercial activity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
On the role of capitalism in transforming the timeless exchange of commodities into the distinctively modern form of commodification, see Charles Tripp, Islam and the Moral Economy: The Challenge of Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 3–4.
Ami Ayalon, Reading Palestine: Printing and Literacy, 1900–1948 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004).
Alfred Gell, “Newcomers to the World of Goods: Consumption among Muria Gonds,” in Arjun Appadurai, ed., The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), as quoted in Navarro-Yashin, Faces of the State, 111, note 32.
Ahmed Midhat, Terbiyeli Çocuk. Mubtediler icin kiraat kitabi (Istanbul: Kirkambar Matbaasi, 1303), 8–9. This book was part of series called Çocuklar kütüphanesi (The children’s library).
A. Riza, Kizlara mahsus kiraat kitabi (Istanbul: Karabet, 1316[1900]), 22.
Ali irfan, Birinci Kiraat (Istanbul: Şems Matbaasi, 1328–1330[1910–12]), 56 ff.
Ali Nazima, Oku yahud yeni risale-i ahlâk ve vezaif-i etfal (Istanbul: Kasbar Matbaasi, 1320[1904]), 4–6.
Zehra Öztürk, “Osmanli Döneminde Kiraat Meclislerinde Okunan Halk Kitaplari,” Türkiye Araştirmalari Literatür Dergisi 5: 9 (2007), 401–45.
Hitzel, “Manuscrits, livres et culture livresque à Istanbul,” REMMM 87–88 (1999): 29.
Erkan Serçe, İzmir’de Kitapçilik (1839–1928) 2nd edn. (izmir: izmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür Yayini, 2002), 76 ff.
The connection between cinema and the nation, identified by Elizabeth Thompson in the context of Syria, but the Turkish case awaits a full treat-ment. Elizabeth Thompson, Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), chapter 12.
François Georgeon, “Les cafés à Istanbul à la fin de l’Empire ottoman,” in Hélène Desmet-Grégoire and François Georgeon, eds., Cafés d’Orient revisités (Paris: CNRS, 1997), 39.
Cengiz Kirli, “Coffeehouses: Public Opinion in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire,” in Armando Salvatore and Dale Eickelman, eds., Public Islam and the Common Good (Leiden: Brill, 2004),
Johann Strauss, “Romanlar, Ah! O Romanlar! Les débuts de la lecture moderne dans l’Empire ottoman (1850–1900)” Turcica 26 (1994): 135.
Klaus Kreiser, “Causes of the Decrease of Ignorance? Remarks on the Printing of Books in the Ottoman Empire” in Klaus Kreiser, ed., The Beginnings of Printing in the Near and Middle East: Jews, Christians and Muslims (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2001), 16. Presses producing books in other scripts, such as Hebrew, Greek and Armenian, had been active for much longer.
Paul Dumont, “Said Bey - The Everyday Life of an Istanbul Townsman at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century” in Albert Hourani et al, eds., The Modern Middle East: A Reader (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993), 272.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2011 Benjamin C. Fortna
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fortna, B.C. (2011). Commodification and the Market. In: Learning to Read in the Late Ottoman Empire and the Early Turkish Republic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230300415_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230300415_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-31316-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-30041-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)