Comparative Perspectives to Ottoman and European History

ADM 5176

Comparative Perspectives to Ottoman and European History

UPL 528

Historical Roots of Urban Politics and Local Governments

Spring Semester 2015

Tuesdays: 9:40-12:30

E. Attila AYTEKİN

Office: A311

Office Hours: Tuesdays 14:00-16:00

Phone: 210-2072

E-mail:

Course description: This graduate course aims to familiarize the students with key issues and debates regarding the Ottoman Empire and major European countries. The course employs a rigorously comparative perspective and the weekly topics are arranged accordingly. This semester the course will emphasize urban history. The reading materials deal with European cities in different parts of the continent (namely, major urban centers in Western, Central and Eastern Europe) and Ottoman cities in different regions of the Empire (Anatolia, Balkans, Arab lands). The goal is not only to provide a general panorama of European and Ottoman urban development in historical context, but also to map put key themes around which European and Ottoman cities can be meaningfully and fruitfully compared. While some of the discussions will cover earlier or later periods, the focus throughout the semester will be on the nineteenth century and early twentieth century developments.

Course Requirements: The course requires continuing preparedness and attention from the students. The weekly reading assignments are mandatory. The class sessions will be conducted in seminar format.

Students will write reaction papers on the reading material assigned, which makes 9 papers in total.

The class grade will be based on the following:

Reaction papers: 70 %

Participation: 30%

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1 –March 1

Introduction to the course

Week 2 –March 8

From the Theory to History of Urban Space

Henri Lefebvre,The Production of Space, tr. by D. Nicholson-Smith(Blackwell, 1991). pp. 1-67 and 401-434

Week 3–March 15

Everyday life and the urban

Henri Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday Life, vol. I, pages TBA

Week 4–March 22

Urban History: Sources and Problematiques

Lecture by the instructor

Week 5 –March 29

Modernity and Urbanism in Eastern Europe

Mark D. Steinberg,Petersburg Fin De Siècle(Yale University Press, 2011)

Week6-7–April 12(1-weekinterval)

Modernity and Urbanism in Western Europe

David Harvey, Paris, Capital of Modernity (Routledge, 2003)

Week 8-9–April 26(1-week interval)

Was there such a thing as the typical Ottoman city?

Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430-1950 (HarperCollins, 2005), pp. 1-285

Week10–May 3

Everyday life in the Ottoman capital

Cem Behar, A neighborhood in Ottoman Istanbul: fruit vendors and civil servants in the KasapİlyasMahalle(State University of New York Press, 2003)

Week 11–May 10

BetweenEmpire and Nation-State:Ottoman Transitions and Urban Space

Miloš Jovanović, “Constructing the National Capital: De-Ottomanization and Urban Transformation in 19th Century Belgrade”, Master's Thesis, Central European University, 2008.

Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber, ed. AutogestionorHenriLefebvre in New Belgrade (Philip EditionsandSternbergPress, 2009)

Week12-13 –May 24(1-weekinterval)

Vienna: Intellectuals and Masses

Oktar Türel, Uzun 19. Yüzyılda Orta Avrupa(Bir Habsburg Üçlemesi)(YordamKitap, 2015), pp.11-79

Wolfgang Maderthanerand Lutz Musner. Unruly Masses: The Other Side of Fin-de-siècle Vienna(New York, Berghahn Books: 2008)

Week 14–June 2

Notables, Commonersand the Question of Autonomy in Ottoman Cities

Stefan Weber,Damascus. Ottoman Modernity and Urban Transformation 1908-1918 (Aarhus, Aarhus University Press, 2005), pp.15-170 and 417-463