The Politics of Culture in Turkey, Greece & Cyprus ― Performing the Left Since the Sixties

This book explores the intersection between the politics and cultures of the Left since the 1960s in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, offering alternative ways to understand, imagine and claim the history and present of the Left across the three countries.

Bringing together fourteen original case studies from diverse academic fields, it exposes the moments in which the Left has been claimed and performed not only through political manifestos and speeches, not only upon traditional political boundaries, but mainly through corporeal acts, discursive practices and affective encounters: transformed into distinct modalities of everyday life and conduct, bodily performances and experiences, danced or sung, versed, painted, or captured in photographic images and reels of tape.

The comparative reading of the fourteen contributions offers fresh insight into the region, as well as innovative analyses of the history of creativity, the affective engagement and the difficulties, challenges and the dilemmas involved in the process of the becomings of the Left. This book is of interest to students and scholars of Middle-Eastern Studies, the history and politics of South-Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and those with an interest in the politics of the Left.

Leonidas Karakatsanis is Research Fellow at the British Institute at Ankara

Nikolaos Papadogianni is a teaching fellow at the University of St Andrews.