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Monday May 21

From national humiliation to difference: The image of the Circassian beauty in the discourses of Circassian diaspora nationalists, by Setenay N. Dogan

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New Perspectives on Turkey, no. 42 (2010): 77-101.

Setenay Nil Doğan, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Yıldız Technical University

Abstract

New Perspectives on Turkey, No. 42 | Spring 2010 -- The Circassian Beauty, attributed  to  the women of  the Caucasus,  is a historical  image  of  idealized  feminine  aesthetics  that  has  prevailed  in Orientalist  literature,  art  and  knowledge  production  as well  as Turkish popular  culture. This  article  argues  that  this  image has  been  central to the gendered construction of diasporic identity among Circassian diaspora nationalists in Turkey. It aims to explore the multiple meanings attached to the  image of the Circassian Beauty, and the ways  in which these meanings are historically transformed in line with the political and historical transformations of the Circassian diaspora in Turkey.

Keywords: Diaspora nationalism,  gender, Circassians, Circassian Beauty, Turkey

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