Representing Turkish Food in US Popular Culture Before and After 9/11

Abstract

Since the first trade voyages and colonialist campaigns to the non-European lands, representations of non-European cultures by the Western world have been constructed with the influence of Exoticism and Orientalism, which are concepts that focus on the articulated difference between the Eurocentric world and “the Other”. This articulated difference has played an important role in postcolonial studies for a long time in analysing the representations of the Other as an unfamiliar and inferior entity and gave way to the concept of “exotic sameness”, which took every non-European culture as generically exotic. Food is considered as a cultural symbol by food scholars and food studies explores these uses of foodstuffs to reveal political and cultural meanings. The representation of Turkish culture in the United States was influenced by the Exoticist and Orientalist perceptions before 9/11 for they focused mainly on Turkey being a generically exotic Eastern country with a mysterious culture. After 9/11 attacks, American representations started including reflections of Islamophobia in representing Turkish culture. In these representations, food is significant as a cultural symbol and this thesis explores the change in the tone of representation in US popular culture by analysing selected literary and visual materials through the lens of food studies.