Elif Shafak [ Turkey ]

Elif Shafak was born in Strasbourg in 1971, the daughter of Turkish parents. After their divorce she grew up in Turkey with her mother, who later served as a diplomat in Spain and Jordan, taking her young daughter with her. Shafak studied sociology and communications theory at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. She then received a Master’s degree in women’s and gender studies and graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences. In her doctoral thesis she critically analyses the ideological nature of Turkish Modernisation. Inspired by writers such as Walter Benjamin, Marcel Proust and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, in her literary work she outlined countermodels, which – with their cosmopolitan perspective – cannot be considered as traditional in any sense.

Shafak used her return to Turkey as an opportunity for the re-appropriation and intensive examination of her mother tongue, from which she had become estranged. In her work she often uses Ottoman concepts, phrases and constructions that are considered outmoded and blimpish in progressive circles. Shafak, however, employs these devices in a decidedly lyrical way. »As if the author were so delighted with her relationship with language, that she only writes in order to pronounce these beautiful words«, the critic Cem Erciyes wrote. With her first novel, »Pinhan« (1997; t: The hidden one), Shafak established herself at the forefront of a generation of writers who redefine Turkish identity. The novel, which takes up traces of Sufism, Islamic mysticism, was awarded the Rumi Prize which recognises the best work of mystical and transcendental literature. Since then Shafak has published five more novels in swift succession. »Şehrin Aynaları« (2000; t: The mirrors of the city) was selected as the novel of the year by the Turkish writers' association. Shafak wrote »The Saint of Incipient Insanities« (2004) for the first time in English. This book tells the story of the search for identity of three young men from Morocco, Spain and Turkey who must find their own way in creating a new life in Boston. The main protagonist of her most recent work, »The Bastard of Istanbul« (2006), is a young half-Armenian who grows up in the USA und seaches for her roots in Turkey. Statements that were uttered by characters in her book led to charges against Shafak for »insulting Turkishness«, but she was – six months later – found not guilty.

The writer also works as a journalist and lecturer in Turkey and the USA. Currently she is Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

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