Spectral Empire: Anglo-Ottoman Poetics of Sovereignty

FAIN: FEL-281842-22

Arif Camoglu
Unaffiliated independent scholar

Research and writing leading to a comparative study of Ottoman and British literature, introducing Ottoman literary sources to debates about the nature and meaning of empire and imperialism.

This book project argues that British and Ottoman literatures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are linked in their representations of sovereignty. My study of the poetry, fiction, chronicles and travelogues of these periods show that both literary traditions respond to the rivalry between the British and Ottoman empires by envisioning imperial hegemony in an obscure form that transcends the limitations of time and space, such as “influential spirit,” “shadow of power,” or “powerful radiance.” This project blends archival research and literary-historical scholarship with critical theory to render traceable how imperial sovereignty sustains itself outside its historical-material dimension. Juxtaposing British textual depictions with their contemporary Ottoman accounts for the first time, this comparative study expands the critique of empire beyond its US-Eurocentric contexts by introducing Ottoman literary sources to post-colonial debates on imperialism.