“The Turk of Early Modern France,” a special issue of L’Esprit Créateur (2013)
In the literature and arts of early modern France, few figures have triggered the imagination as much as the Turk. Spurred by the growing political, military, economic, and cultural impact of the Ottoman Empire on the Mediterranean and its bordering countries after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Turk quickly assumed the status of the mysterious yet fascinating Oriental and quintessential Muslim in French discourses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This special issue of L’Esprit Créateur seeks to capture and analyze the rich and varied presence of the Turk in French literary and artistic production of early modernity, roughly delimited by the first and second siege of Vienna (1529-1683). Studies that focus on the transformation of the Turk as an imaginary figure during this period and/or engage critically with current debates about Orientalism are particularly welcome.
Please send proposals (ca. 500 words) for articles (ca. 6000 words) to the issue’s guest-editor, Prof. Marcus Keller (mkeller@illinois.edu) by July 1, 2012. Accepted articles will be due by February 1, 2013. The special issue of L’Esprit Créateur will be published in December 2013. Submissions of proposals may be in English or French. For any queries please contact the guest-editor directly.